[1] The variant Avishalom (Hebrew: אֲבּישָׁלוֹם, Modern: ʼAvīšalōm, Tiberian: ʼĂḇīšālōm, "my father is peace") is used as the name of the father-in-law of Rehoboam in 1 Kings (15:2,10), who in 2 Chronicles 11:20,21 is referred to by the shorter form Avshalom.
[2] The modern Scandinavian first name, Axel, has developed (via Axelen) from Absalon, a 12th-century Danish archbishop and statesman.
As in the biblical story, as Absalom was pursuing his father, King David, in the forest of Ephraim and had his long hair caught in a tree, the name appears to have been a nickname for a man with long or thick hair, as suggested by a passage in the Canterbury Tales, Now was ther of that Chirche a parish clerk, The which that was ycleped Absolon ... Curl was his heer and as the gold it shoon.This use as a nickname is possibly also the origin of Absalom as an English surname.
The surname remained rare throughout its existence, but it gave rise to a number of variants, such as Asplen, and via the latter, Aspling and Ashplant.
[5] The variant Absolon is found in England as well as in France and Germany, reaching Central Europe in the late medieval period, so that Absolon (feminine Absolonová) is now also a Czech and Slovak surname.