Axel

boys’ nameComebackCompare

Axel is ranked 78th among boys in 2024 (4,245 births). Its best rank was 71st, in 2023.

Rank in 2024: #78down 7 from 2023
Births in 2024: 4,2450.25% of boys
Peak year: 20204,666 births
Best rank: #71in 2023
Since 1880: 68,288people given the name

Babies named Axel, by year of birthboys

The story in the numbers

68,288 boys have been named Axel in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2020, with 4,666 births — 0.27% of all boys recorded that year.

This is a comeback. After an early peak the name fell to a fraction of its former share, and it has been climbing again for the past decade.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 2017, and the 2010s alone account for 47%. It has spent 67 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 7 of them in the top 100.

Rank among boys, year by year

Higher on the chart = more popularrank (gaps = outside the top 1,000)

By decade

Decade	boys named Axel
1880s	163
1890s	165
1900s	86
1910s	291
1920s	232
1930s	89
1940s	81
1950s	85
1960s	168
1970s	221
1980s	446
1990s	1,534
2000s	10,613
2010s	31,803
2020s	22,311

In 2020, its biggest year

Axel was the 72nd most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 2020 were Liam, Noah, Oliver, Elijah and William. See all of 2020.

Names that rose and fell with Axel

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

Axell1,049 ever

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.