Kjell
A masculine name of Scandinavian origin meaning "helmet" or "helmet bearer".
Name Census estimates that about 337 living Americans carry the first name Kjell. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kjell today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kjell births was 1971 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kjell. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
337
~ 1 in 1,017,075 Americans
Peak year
1971
15 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2014 SSA rank
#11,509
Tracked since 1958
Census
Kjell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 653 people with the first name Kjell, which placed it at #17,051 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#17,051
National first-name rank
People counted
653
653 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kjell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kjell is White at 91.9%. The next largest groups are Black (2.5%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kjell described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kjell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.9% · 600
- Black or African American2.5% · 16
- Two or more races2.5% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4
Popularity
Kjell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kjell from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 107 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kjell by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Kjell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kjells live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kjell
The name Kjell is of Scandinavian origin, derived from the Old Norse name Ketill, which means "cauldron" or "kettle." It is believed to have originated in the Viking era, around the 8th to 11th centuries AD, when the Norse people inhabited parts of modern-day Scandinavia, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland.
The earliest recorded use of the name Kjell can be traced back to the 9th century, when it was mentioned in the Icelandic sagas, a collection of narratives that documented the lives and adventures of the Norse people. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Kjell Þorkelsson, a Norwegian chieftain and Viking who lived in the late 10th century.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Kjell remained popular among the Scandinavian population. Notable figures with this name include Kjell Isaksson (c. 1150-1220), a Swedish statesman and jarl (earl) who played a significant role in the consolidation of the Swedish kingdom.
In the 16th century, Kjell Stubbe (c. 1506-1598) was a Danish nobleman and military leader who fought in the Northern Seven Years' War against Sweden. Another prominent bearer of the name was Kjell Ulfsson (1600-1672), a Swedish military officer and governor of the Kalmar Castle.
During the 19th century, Kjell Michelet (1839-1892) was a Norwegian author and journalist who contributed to the development of Norwegian literature. Kjell Knutsson (1845-1915) was a Swedish politician and Prime Minister of Sweden from 1905 to 1906.
In the 20th century, Kjell Inge Røkke (born 1958) is a Norwegian billionaire businessman and one of the wealthiest individuals in Norway. Kjell Furuhol (born 1969) is a Norwegian cross-country skier who won multiple Olympic and World Championship medals in the 1990s and 2000s.
The name Kjell has remained popular in Scandinavian countries, particularly in Norway and Sweden, where it has been consistently among the top names for baby boys over the past few decades. It is a strong and distinctive name with a rich cultural heritage rooted in the Viking age and the storied history of Scandinavia.
People
Kjell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kjell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kjell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kjell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 337 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kjell going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,017,075 US residents.
Is Kjell a common name?
We classify Kjell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 359 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kjell most popular?
The single biggest year for Kjell was 1971, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kjell is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kjell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 653 people with the name Kjell, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,051 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kjell in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kjell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kjell leans strongly male. 638 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 13 female bearers (2.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kjell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kjell is White at 91.9%. The next largest groups are Black (2.5%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kjell most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kjell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.9% (600 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Kjell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kjell a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kjell in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Kjell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kjell in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Kjell can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Kjell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.