Family name origins & meanings
- Finnish (Kivelä) : from kivi ‘stone’ + the local ending -la, -lä, originally a habitational name from a farmstead so named. It was also adopted during the name conversion movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries by Finns with Swedish surnames, especially those formed with Swedish sten ‘stone’, such as Stenvall, Stenroos, and Stenberg.