Keelee
A feminine given name of Irish origin meaning "beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 454 living Americans carry the first name Keelee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keelee today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keelee births was 2007 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keelee. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Keelee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
454
~ 1 in 754,966 Americans
Peak year
2007
43 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2020 SSA rank
#12,804
Tracked since 1976
Census
Keelee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 496 people with the first name Keelee, which placed it at #20,722 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#20,722
National first-name rank
People counted
496
496 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keelee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keelee is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and Black (5.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Keelee described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Keelee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.0% · 382
- Two or more races7.5% · 37
- Black or African American5.4% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.6% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 8
Popularity
Keelee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keelee from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 223 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keelee by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Keelee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keelee
The given name Keelee is a relatively modern and unique name, with its origins and meaning somewhat obscure. It is likely a variation or combination of other more established names, potentially derived from various cultural and linguistic roots.
One possible interpretation is that Keelee is a feminized form of the Irish name Keely, which itself is a diminutive of the masculine name Kyle. Kyle can be traced back to the Gaelic name Caoilte, which means "slender" or "thin." In this context, Keelee could be seen as a more modern and feminine adaptation of this original Irish name.
Another theory suggests that Keelee may have roots in the Hawaiian language, where the name Keeley or Kiele is a feminine name meaning "the bearer of good news." The addition of the extra "e" at the end could be a creative spin on this Hawaiian name, giving it a more unique and melodic sound.
While there are no definitive historical references or records of the name Keelee itself, it is worth noting a few notable individuals who have carried variations of this name throughout history. One example is Keely Shaye Smith, an American former journalist and the wife of actor Pierce Brosnan, born in 1963.
Another individual is Keely Shaye Brosnan, the daughter of Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith, born in 1993. While not named Keelee directly, these examples demonstrate the use of similar names in more recent times.
Moving further back in history, there is Keely Forsyth, an American actress and singer who was active in the early 20th century, born in 1890 and passing away in 1948. Additionally, Keely Smith, an American jazz and popular music singer, had a successful career spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s, born in 1928 and passing away in 2017.
Finally, one of the earliest recorded individuals with a similar name is Keely Stevenson, an American actress and vaudeville performer who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, born in 1876 and passing away in 1952.
While the name Keelee itself may not have a deep historical lineage, its possible roots in Irish, Hawaiian, and other cultural traditions, combined with its unique sound and spelling, have likely contributed to its growing popularity as a modern given name.
People
Keelee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keelee as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Keelee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keelee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 454 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keelee going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 754,966 US residents.
Is Keelee a common name?
We classify Keelee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 463 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keelee most popular?
The single biggest year for Keelee was 2007, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keelee is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keelee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 496 people with the name Keelee, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,722 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Keelee in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Keelee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keelee leans strongly female. 491 people counted with this name were female (98.2%), compared with 9 male bearers (1.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Keelee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keelee is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and Black (5.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Keelee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keelee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.0% (382 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Keelee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keelee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keelee in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Keelee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keelee in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Keelee can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Keelee?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Keelee at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.