[18] According to Finnish linguist Eino Nieminen [fi], the name of the instrument, along with the names of most of its neighbouring counterparts (Lithuanian kanklės, Finnish kantele, Estonian kannel and Livonian kāndla), possibly comes from the proto-Baltic form *kantlīs/*kantlēs, which originally meant 'the singing tree',[13] ultimately deriving from the Proto-European root *qan- ('to sing, to sound').

However, Lithuanian ethnologist Romualdas Apanavičius [lt] believes kokles could be derived from the Proto-European root *gan(dh)-, meaning 'a vessel; a haft (of a sword)', suggesting that it may be related to the Russian word gusli.

[19] The kokles has a hollow trapezoidal body (ķermenis or korpuss) usually carved out of a single piece of wood (vienkocis) that's topped with a thin ornated wooden soundboard (skaņgaldiņš).

In Kurzeme kokles was generally played while sitting on a stool, bench or chair without armrests and placing it horizontally in the lap with legs slightly parted.

[26] In the Latvian historical region of Kurzeme kokles are traditionally constructed smaller in size and without a "wing", but with more ornate carvings and ornaments.

[27] On May 17, 2015, during Latvia's presidency of the Council of the European Union, a Kurzeme kokles built by the crafter Jānis Rozenbergs was donated to the Musical Instruments Museum of Brussels.

[28] In the largely Catholic Latgale region of Latvia, it was characteristic for the kokles to be constructed with an extension of the body beyond the peg line called a wing, that reinforces the sound of the instrument and can also be used as an arm support.

[31] The first larger "concert kokle" with a three-and-a-half octave range and 25 stings was constructed in 1951 by Romāns Ķirpis for the Latvian folk music orchestra's soloist Helēna Kļava-Birgmeistere.

[38] In 2002 record label Upe released a double CD by ethnomusicologist Valdis Muktupāvels titled "Kokles", dedicated to the instrument.

[39][40] In 2016 record label Lauska released a CD Trejdeviņi koklētāji (Thrice-nine kokles players) featuring some of the best known Latvian kokles players (Valdis Muktupāvels, Laima Jansone [lv], Biruta Ozoliņa [lv] and Ansis Jansons among others) and Baltic psaltery players from abroad (Leanne Barbo [et; lv] from Estonia and Jenni Venäläinen [fi] from Finland), as well as Latvian concert kokles ensembles, with a collection of 13 compositions that span from traditional to ethno-jazz and ethno-baroque genres.