Cancel

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Cancel is one spelling over 3 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.

• English56%

  To cross out something with lines etc.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Spanish23%

  storm door (secondary door)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• French8.3%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Cancel in French.

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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Cancel is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Cäncel, Cancél

• Hindi surname3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Russia

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Cancél

42 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.

Cancel is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Croatian, inform. odustati, prekinuti od daljnjeg izvođenja neke funkcije ili programa; abort, break, opr. O. K. ( 2 )

  as a word·Hrvatski jezični portal (HJP) dictionary export

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.

• Rafael Cancel Mirandab. 1930USPuerto Rican politician and independence advocate (1930-2020)
• Ángel Cancelb. 1940USPuerto Rican basketball player (born 1940)
• Alice Cancelb. 1955USpolitician
• Eric Cancelb. 1962FRFrench politician
• Robinson Cancelb. 1976USPuerto Rican baseball player
• Genoiska Cancelb. 1988Puerto Rican track and field athlete

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).

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

What does the name Cancel mean, and where does it come from?

To cross out something with lines etc. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

What are other forms of the name Cancel?

In the etymology graph, Chancellor, Chancel and Chancery are forms of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Cancel?

It depends on the language: in English /ˈkæn.sl̩/ (Wiktionary); in Spanish /kanˈsel/ (Wiktionary).

In which country does Cancel have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 3.8 thousand people named Cancel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled cancel.

How common is the name Cancel?

In the United States, the national register counted 3,801 people named Cancel in 2010, about 1 in 88 thousand residents.

How common is Cancel compared with other names?

In Puerto Rico, Cancel is the 143rd most common surname of 8,205 surnames recorded there.