Axel

given name · Latin script

Meaning: Scandinavian form of Absalom, Hebrew 'father of peace'

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/aksɛl/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Axel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Sweden than in any other country. In Guatemala it is the 99th most common given name.

rarermore common
  • FRFrance≈1 in 1.2K(inferred from the name graph)
  • ARArgentina≈1 in 1.2K
  • GTGuatemala≈1 in 1.2K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Axel itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Sweden (measured from records)

60,838 people

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
381 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 168 (inferred from the name graph)

Sweden

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

AxelLatin(measured from records)
ΑξελGreek(measured from records)

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Scandinavian form of Absalom, Hebrew 'father of peace'.

Sources 1

  • Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.

Often considered alongside

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Axel, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Axel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Axel is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
SE Sweden—60,8381 in 16861KAxel38
FR France#212≈57,000 est.≈1 in 1.2K89KAxel381
US United States—42,9991 in 7.7K43KAxel323
AR Argentina#319≈38,000 est.≈1 in 1.2K593Axel124
EC Ecuador—18,8101 in 89919KAxel44
GT Guatemala#99≈14,000 est.≈1 in 1.2K—Axel58
NO Norway—6,509as Aksel1 in 84024K—24
DK Denmark—6,375as Aksel1 in 9216.4K——
IS Iceland—5451 in 644545——

60,838 people counted by Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); RENAPER — Nombres de nacimientos (2012–present); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); INEC — civil registry names; Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Axel is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • German given name34 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, United States, Australia, Belgium

    Languages: German, English, Dutch

    Also written Aexel, Äxel, Äxël, Àxel, Axél

  • Swedish given name12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Sweden, Denmark, United States, Norway

    Languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian

    Also written Axél, Axèl, Åxel, Âxêl, Axël

  • Finnish given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Sweden, Finland, United States, Spain

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Âxel, Axël

  • Lao given name58 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Laos, Thailand, Türkiye, United States

    Languages: Lao, Thai

    Also written Excel, Esen, Axcel, Ezel, Acel

  • Catalan given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Andorra, Argentina

    Also written Àxel

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Àxel, Áxel, Axël

  • Danish given name64 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Denmark, Norway, United States, Latvia

    Languages: Danish, Norwegian, English

    Also written Aksel, Аксель, Aksel', Axelle, Аксэль

  • Indonesian given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Malaysia

    Also written 'Axel

71 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Axel is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In French, En patinage artistique, saut dans lequel le patineur effectue une rotation d’un tour et demi en l’air. Ce saut fut exécuté pour la première fois par le patineur suédois Axel Polsen (ou Paulsen) en 1882 à Vienne. Depuis lors, d’autres patineurs sont parvenus à effectuer des doubles axels et même des triples axels !

    as a name2500 noms propres devenus communs : dictionnaire étymologique (éponymes, antonomases et hypallages)

  • In French, Évoque l’axe, la protection « sous l’aile », l’exil et la volonté d’apaisement des tensions familiales; fête non indiquée.

    as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

  • In French, Variante scandinave d’Absalon, du hébreu ʾav shalom « père de paix »; fête: 21 mars.

    as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

  • In French, Forme nordique dérivée de l’hébreu Absalom, « père de la paix ».

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  • In French, Forme scandinave d'Absalon ou de nom germanique; usage moderne.

    as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1400160018002000Axel Oxenstierna, b. 1583Erik Axel Karlfeldt, b. 1864Haakon VII of Norway, b. 1872Prince Axel of Denmark, b. 1888Axel Springer, b. 1912Lennart Carleson, b. 1928Axel Milberg, b. 1956Axel Kicillof, b. 1971Axwell, b. 1977Axel Witsel, b. 1989

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

InformalHola Axel,Hi Axel, (English)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 111 sources across 59 countries.

Official registers attesting Axel
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)202489K#58
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—61K#60
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202043K#1,003
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)202020K—
EC EcuadorINEC — civil registry names202419K#133
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—7.3K#513
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)20254.1K—
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—3.1K#167
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)20252.2K—
EC EcuadorINEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024)20241.2K—
AR ArgentinaRENAPER — Nombres de nacimientos (2012–present)2024593#239
IS IcelandÞjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry)2026545—

Reference works 7

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Is Axel a male or female name?
Axel is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Axel mean, and where does it come from?
Scandinavian form of Absalom, Hebrew 'father of peace'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
What are other forms of the name Axel?
In the etymology graph, Aksel, Axl and Absalom are forms of the same name in other languages.
In which country does Axel have the most bearers?
In Sweden, the national register counted about 61 thousand people named Axel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled axel.
Where is Axel most common?
Axel is densest in Sweden, where the national register counts about 1 in 168 people carrying it.
How do you pronounce Axel?
A machine transcription gives /aksɛl/ (IPA) for Spanish.
How common is the name Axel?
In Sweden, the national register counted 60,838 people named Axel, about 1 in 168 residents.
How common is Axel compared with other names?
In Guatemala, Axel is the 99th most common given name of 22,774 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Axel?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/axel

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Axel” — the 99th most common given name in Guatemala. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Axel parses inside a full name →