Name Awesome

Kjell

Boys' name

Variant of Ketil

Kjell has been given to 360 babies in the U.S. since 1958. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1968, with 15 recorded.

Babies named Kjell, 2014

1 in 618,000

Kjell over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kjell: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Ketil

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Kjell means

Kjell is a variant of Ketil.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Kjell is used in Swedish and Norwegian.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈɕɛlː/ and /ˈçɛlː/ for Kjell.

Origin, language, and formation

Kjell is used in Norwegian and Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ketil, Kjetil and Keld.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Swedish, Kjell is pronounced /ɕɛl/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 360 boys were recorded with the name Kjell between 1958 and 2014. Its highest annual count was 15 in 1968; its best national rank was #2,150 in 1968.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Kjell?

Kjell had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2014, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2014
1 in 618,000
6 of 3,706,812 births
Among boys only
1 in 320,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2014
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
428,229 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kjell sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2014 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 428,229 children born in 2014 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kjell. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kjells were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kjell was born before 1980 — so the typical Kjell is around 45 today.

Median birth year
1980
About 45 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
29.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
31.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
360
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 29.7% of all recorded uses (107).

Is Kjell rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1968 (15)
Years since peak
57
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,150
1968

Spellings of Kjell

Kjell is not the most common spelling — Kelly is, with 66.8% against Kjell's 0.29%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Kjell is used

Across 1910–2025, Kjell was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,029,466 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Washington1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Kjell has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kjell around the world

Where Kjell ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #308
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2001–2001
    #2,057
    in 2001

Popularity data from Statistics Norway and Statistics Canada. SSB data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Kjell by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,150
1968
Peak year
1968
15 that year
First recorded
1958
Last recorded
2014
All-time count
360
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kjell

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

RydellRamellAxellJoellTellAmellJuellZyrellJowellUdellMykellOzellCaswellAndrellEuellTarellKyrellKyellKatrellMarzellAzellIzellJahrellLanell

Sibling names for Kjell

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Kjell

Top names of 1968, Kjell's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1968Boys' names starting with KNorwegian Boy NamesSwedish Boy Names