When was the name Kal-El first used?
Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman’s first appearance in “Action Comics #1” in 1938 did not specify too much about the character’s Kryptonian heritage.
Branching out from his comic book origins, a daily newspaper strip, which was first published on January 16, 1939, would expand on Superman’s story. The first mention of the name Kal-L (with no E before the letter L) came in the second strip published on January 17, 1939.
The earliest newspaper strips name the planet “Krypton”, the baby “Kal-L”, and his biological parents “Jor-L” and “Lora”.
Their names became “Jor-el”, and “Lara” in a 1942 spinoff novel by George Lowther titled “The Adventures of Superman,” who was also the first to spell the name Kal-el with an e in front of the l, but a lowercase e, not the capital E as would later become popular.
The first comic book to feature the name “Kal-El” was “Superman #113,” written by Bill Finger, with a cover date of May 1957.
What does the name Kal-El mean?
Some have theorized that El is inspired by the common Hebrew name element אלֵ (‘el) meaning “of God”, with Kal-El defined by some as “Voice of God”. While Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were Jewish, there is no evidence that they had this connection in mind, and it seems possible they simply made the name up.
On Krypton, his name signifies that he is Kal of the House of El. In Kryptonian, “El” means “Child” and “Kal” means “star”. So the name Kal-El means “Child of the Stars” or “Star Child”.
Of note, American actor Nicolas Cage, who is a big Superman fan and once owned an original copy of “Action Comics #1,” named his son Kal-El in 2005.
