Keiley
A feminine variant of the surname Kelly, meaning "descendant of the bright-headed one."
Name Census estimates that about 508 living Americans carry the first name Keiley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keiley today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keiley births was 2007 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keiley. 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 Keiley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
508
~ 1 in 674,713 Americans
Peak year
2007
32 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,798
Tracked since 1978
Census
Keiley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 439 people with the first name Keiley, which placed it at #22,609 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
#22,609
National first-name rank
People counted
439
439 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keiley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keiley is White at 64.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.9%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Keiley 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 Keiley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.0% · 281
- Hispanic or Latino16.9% · 74
- Two or more races8.4% · 37
- Black or African American6.6% · 29
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 7
Popularity
Keiley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keiley 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 240 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
Keiley 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 Keiley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keileys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Keiley
The name Keiley is an English feminine given name, believed to have originated from the Old English word "ceole," meaning "throat" or "neck." It is a variant spelling of the name Kelly, which also stems from the same Old English root.
The earliest recorded use of the name Keiley dates back to the 16th century in England. It was initially used as a surname, derived from the Old English personal name "Ceadda" or "Cedda," which means "battle" or "combat." Over time, the name transitioned into a given name, particularly in Ireland and Scotland.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Keiley was Keiley O'Reilly, an Irish noblewoman from the 17th century. She was the daughter of Turlough O'Reilly, Lord of East Breffny, and played a significant role in the Irish Confederate Wars of the 1640s.
In the 18th century, Keiley Stokes (1717-1793) was a notable English mathematician and educator. She was one of the first women to be elected as a member of the Royal Society in 1735, and her work on the calculation of logarithms was highly regarded.
Another historical figure bearing the name Keiley was Keiley McCracken (1851-1926), an Irish-American labor organizer and activist. She was a prominent figure in the American labor movement and fought for workers' rights and better working conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the world of literature, Keiley Vaughan (1895-1972) was an American poet and writer. She is best known for her collection of poems titled "The Leaf and the Cloud," published in 1921, which explored themes of nature, love, and the human condition.
Another notable figure was Keiley O'Connell (1920-2005), an Irish-American actress and singer. She had a successful career on Broadway and appeared in several films and television shows throughout the mid-20th century.
While the name Keiley has seen some usage throughout history, it has remained relatively uncommon compared to its more popular variant, Kelly. Nevertheless, it carries a rich cultural heritage rooted in Old English and Irish traditions, with various notable individuals who have borne this unique name over the centuries.
People
Keiley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keiley 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
Keiley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keiley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 508 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keiley 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 674,713 US residents.
Is Keiley a common name?
We classify Keiley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 516 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keiley most popular?
The single biggest year for Keiley was 2007, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keiley is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keiley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 439 people with the name Keiley, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,609 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 Keiley 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 Keiley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keiley appears almost entirely female. Of the 436 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Keiley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keiley is White at 64.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.9%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Keiley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keiley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.0% (281 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 Keiley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keiley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keiley 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 Keiley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keiley 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 Keiley 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 people have the name Keiley?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Keiley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.