Kalel is taken from Kal-El, Superman's birth name on the planet Krypton, which his creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster modeled on Hebrew; fans usually explain it as "voice of God", from kol and El. Nicolas Cage named his son Kal-El in 2005, and the name began appearing on birth certificates soon after. In the United States Kalel entered the top 1000 in 2009, peaked at number 860 in 2014 and ranks 1161 in 2025.