Axelrod or Akselrod (variant: Axelrad, meaning "axle wheel") is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Albert Axelrod (1921–2004), American Olympic medalist foil fencer
• Barry Axelrod (born 1946), American sports agent
• Beth Axelrod, American executive
• Daniel I. Axelrod (1910–1998), American paleoecologist, botanist, and geologist, known by author abbreviation "Axelrod"
• David Axelrod (born 1955), American political consultant who worked on campaigns of Barack Obama and Richard M. Daley
• David Axelrod (musician) (1936–2017), American classical musician
• Donald Axelrod (1916–1999), American academic
• Dylan Axelrod (born 1985), American MLB baseball player
• Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod (born 1987), American-Israeli soprano
• George Axelrod (1922–2003), American screenwriter, producer, playwright, and film director
• Herbert R. Axelrod (1927–2017), American author, publisher and ichthyologist
• Jason David Axelrod AKA David Ha'ivri (born 1967), Jewish-Israeli settler activist and spokesman
• Jim Axelrod (born 1963), American reporter for CBS
• John Axelrod (born 1966), American conductor
• Julius Axelrod (1912–2004), American biochemist who won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970
• Lyubov Axelrod (1868–1946), Russian Marxist philosopher and revolutionary
• Max M. Axelrod (1911–2004), American philanthropist and activist
• Meer Akselrod (1902–1970), Russian painter known for paintings of Jewish life in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union
• Paul Axelrod (born 1949), British author and professor and dean at York University
• Pavel Akselrod (1850–1928), also spelled Pavel Axelrod, Russian Menshevik revolutionary
• Robert Axelrod (born 1943), American professor of political science at the University of Michigan who has written about the evolution of cooperation
• Robert Axelrod (actor) (1949–2019), American actor who has been in movies and TV shows, often as a voice actor
• Victor Axelrod, American independent music producer and artist