Keeleigh
A feminine English name derived from the Irish surname Keeley.
Name Census estimates that about 415 living Americans carry the first name Keeleigh. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keeleigh today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keeleigh births was 2008 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keeleigh. 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 Keeleigh with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
415
~ 1 in 825,914 Americans
Peak year
2008
33 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,415
Tracked since 1994
Census
Keeleigh in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 367 people with the first name Keeleigh, which placed it at #25,720 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
#25,720
National first-name rank
People counted
367
367 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keeleigh
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keeleigh is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.3%) and Black (5.2%). 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 Keeleigh 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 Keeleigh at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.7% · 296
- Two or more races9.3% · 34
- Black or African American5.2% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Keeleigh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keeleigh from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 187 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
Keeleigh 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 Keeleigh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keeleighs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Keeleigh
The name Keeleigh is a relatively modern English variant of the traditional Irish name Caelia or Caoilfhionn. Its origins can be traced back to the Gaelic language, which was spoken in Ireland and parts of Scotland during the medieval period.
The name Caoilfhionn is derived from the Gaelic words "caol" meaning "slender" and "fionn" meaning "fair" or "white." It was initially used to describe a person with a slender, fair complexion, and the name gradually became associated with physical beauty and grace.
While there are no direct historical references to the name Keeleigh itself, the name Caoilfhionn has been mentioned in various Irish literary works and manuscripts dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries. It was particularly popular among the Irish nobility and ruling families during this time.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Caoilfhionn was St. Caoilfhionn of Clonenagh, an Irish nun and abbess who lived in the 6th century. She founded the famous monastery of Clonenagh in County Laois, Ireland, and was renowned for her piety and devotion to the Christian faith.
Another notable figure was Caoilfhionn Ní Bhaoill, an Irish noblewoman and poet who lived in the 16th century. She was known for her skilled poetic compositions and her contributions to the preservation of Irish culture and language during a tumultuous period in Irish history.
In the 19th century, the name Caoilfhionn gained popularity among Irish-American families as a way to honor their heritage. One notable bearer was Caoilfhionn O'Reilly (1846-1920), an Irish-American educator and advocate for women's rights. She was instrumental in establishing educational opportunities for women in the United States.
As the name Caoilfhionn evolved over time, it gave rise to various anglicized spellings, including Keeley, Keely, and eventually Keeleigh. While the spelling Keeleigh is relatively modern, it still carries the essence of the original Gaelic name and its associations with beauty, grace, and Irish heritage.
People
Keeleigh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keeleigh 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
Keeleigh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keeleigh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 415 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keeleigh 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 825,914 US residents.
Is Keeleigh a common name?
We classify Keeleigh as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 420 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keeleigh most popular?
The single biggest year for Keeleigh was 2008, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keeleigh is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keeleigh in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 367 people with the name Keeleigh, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,720 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 Keeleigh 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 Keeleigh?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keeleigh appears almost entirely female. Of the 365 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Keeleigh?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keeleigh is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.3%) and Black (5.2%). 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 Keeleigh most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keeleigh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.7% (296 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 Keeleigh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keeleigh a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keeleigh 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 Keeleigh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keeleigh 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 Keeleigh 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 common is the name Keeleigh?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.