From a Karelian dialectal (i.e. Karelian Finnish) word kempelä, kempele(“twisted, winding”), kemmelä,[1] possibly in some way derived from kampi (compare kampela) through later fronting.
The internal locative cases (inessive, illative and elative) are used with this place name when referring to a location; for example, "in Kempele" is Kempeleessä.
^ Sirkka Paikkala, editor (2007), Suomalainen paikannimikirja [Book of Finnish Place names] (in Finnish), Helsinki: Karttakeskus, Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus, →ISBN