Aksel
Aksel was given to 155 boys in 2025, #1,267 among boys’ names; 2,561 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,540 Americans named Aksel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Aksel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Aksel mean?
Wiktionary, Danish section
Aksel is “a male given name, equivalent to English Axel”
Vernacular form of Absalom.
Meaning: Wiktionary, Danish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Aksel?
#1,267 among boys’ names, 2025
Aksel rose from #1,359 in 2015 to #1,267 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 66.8 to 90.7 per million.
198 babies in 2018, the peak
Aksel peaked in 2018, when 198 boys were given it, #1,029 among boys’ names. The 155 births of 2025 are 78% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 155 | #1,267 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 128 | #1,426 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 149 | #1,288 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 124 | #1,457 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 153 | #1,245 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 163 | #1,177 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 146 | #1,277 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 198 | #1,029 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 146 | #1,252 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 177 | #1,105 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 128 | #1,359 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 125 | #1,362 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 67 | #2,021 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 85 | #1,755 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 93 | #1,635 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 119 | #1,399 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 54 | #2,380 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 49 | #2,542 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 47 | #2,603 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 47 | #2,542 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 35 | #2,958 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 29 | #3,283 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 38 | #2,617 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 16 | #4,703 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 22 | #3,717 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 21 | #3,762 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 13 | #5,039 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 6 | #8,488 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 5 | #9,292 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 6 | #7,786 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 7 | #6,674 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 10 | #4,810 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Aksel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Aksel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Aksel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Aksel, and how old are they?
2,540 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,561 Americans ever recorded as Aksel. The median Aksel alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 1,636 people named Aksel (9 women and girls, 1,627 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,716 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 22 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 670 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,850 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Aksel born?
The states with the most babies named Aksel are California, Texas and Colorado, with 47% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Colorado is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 21 | #1,012 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 18 | #1,169 | 0.6× |
| Colorado | 9 | #572 | 2.2× |
| New York | 9 | #1,204 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,026 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,098 | 0.3× |
| Arizona | 6 | #844 | 0.3× |
| Maryland | 6 | #706 | 0.1× |
| Minnesota | 5 | #814 | 2.5× |
| Wisconsin | 5 | #785 | 1.1× |
Where Aksel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Aksel is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1989 it was given 2.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Aksel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 75,315 babies since 1880, Aksel is the second most given (3.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 155 of their 4,309 babies (3.6%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Aksel
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Aksel and names like it
- Compare Aksel and AxelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAksel peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Aksel since 1910.
- Danish namesWiktionary’s origin for Aksel: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Aksel.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Aksel alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.