Gunnel
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in Swedish: a female given name, variant of Gunhild
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɡɵ˧˩n̪ɛ˥˩l̪/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Gunnel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Sweden than in any other country.
- SESweden1 in 561(measured from records)
- FIFinland1 in 7.9K
- BJBenin≈1 in 17K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Sweden (measured from records)
- Sources
- 71 (measured from records)
- 1 in 561 (inferred from the name graph)
18,187 people
Highest-authority source
Sweden
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
a female given name, variant of Gunhild
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.
How Gunnel is read(measured from records)
Gunnel is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Swedish72%
- English13%
Alternative spelling of gunwale.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gunnel 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.
18,187 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: Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). 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).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Gunhild of Wendenb. 901not in their usual namePolish princess, daughter of Mieszko I of Poland
- Gunnhildr konungamóðirb. 910NOnot in their usual namewife of Eric Bloodaxe
- Gunhildeb. 950GBnot in their usual namesister of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark
- Gunnhildr Sveinsdóttirb. 1015NOnot in their usual nameDanish royal consorts
- Gunhilda of Denmarkb. 1020DKnot in their usual name11th century Queen of Germany
- Gunnel Vallquistb. 1918SESwedish writer and translator, member of the Swedish Academy (1918-2016)
- Gunnel Lindeb. 1924SESwedish writer (1924–2014)
- Gunnel Lindblomb. 1931SESwedish actress (1931–2021)
- Gunhild Hoffmeisterb. 1944DEnot in their usual nameEast German middle distance runner and politician
- Gunnel Fredb. 1955SEactress
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)
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 12 sources across 6 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 18K | #239 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 1999 | 18K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2000 | 18K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2001 | 18K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2002 | 17K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2003 | 17K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2004 | 17K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2005 | 17K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2006 | 17K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2007 | 16K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2008 | 16K | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2009 | 16K | — |
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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
- What does the name Gunnel mean, and where does it come from?
- a female given name, variant of Gunhild Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Gunnel?
- In the etymology graph, Gunilla, Gunhild and Gunnhild are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Gunnel?
- A machine transcription gives /ɡɵ˧˩n̪ɛ˥˩l̪/ (IPA) for Swedish.
- Is Gunnel a male or female name?
- Gunnel is a female 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.
- In which country does Gunnel have the most bearers?
- In Sweden, the national register counted about 18 thousand people named Gunnel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gunnel.
- Where is Gunnel most common?
- Gunnel is densest in Sweden, where the national register counts about 1 in 561 people carrying it.
- How common is the name Gunnel?
- In Sweden, the national register counted 18,187 people named Gunnel, about 1 in 561 residents.
- How common is Gunnel compared with other names?
- In Sweden, Gunnel is the 256th most common given name of 45,482 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gunnel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/gunnelThe 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, “Gunnel” — the 256th most common given name in Sweden. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.