Explore the Family Name Kivela

The meaning of Kivela

Finnish (Kivelä): habitational name from farms so named, from kivi ‘stone’ + the locative suffix -lä. Established as a hereditary surname since the 19th century in southern, western, and northern Finland and also used in the name-changing campaigns of the early 20th century as an ornamental name to replace Swedish surnames formed with sten ‘stone’, such as Stenvall, Stenroos, and Stenberg. Some characteristic forenames: Finnish Armas, Eino, Mauno, Sulo, Veikko.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Kivela in the United States?

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Kivela experienced a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The rank of the surname dropped from 57,090 to 60,505, marking a change of -5.98%. Despite this change in ranking, the count of individuals with the Kivela surname remained relatively stable, only decreasing by 0.3%, from 334 to 333. The proportion per 100k also saw a small decline from 0.12 to 0.11, indicating an -8.33% change.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#57,090	#60,505	-5.98%
Count	334	333	-0.3%
Proportion per 100k	0.12	0.11	-8.33%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kivela

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the majority of individuals with the Kivela surname identified as White, with an increase from 96.71% in 2000 to 97.9% in 2010. A small percentage (1.5%) identified as Hispanic in 2000, however, this number dropped to 0% in 2010. There were no Kivelas who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native during these years. Furthermore, there were also no individuals who declared themselves as belonging to two or more races.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.71%	97.9%	1.23%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	1.5%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%