Keira
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly Greek or Celtic.
Name Census estimates that about 32,929 living Americans carry the first name Keira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keira today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keira births was 2006 (3,022 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keira. 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 Keira with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Keira is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
33K
~ 1 in 10,409 Americans
Peak year
2006
3,022 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2009 SSA rank
#609
Tracked since 1962
Census
Keira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 28,421 people with the first name Keira, which placed it at #1,294 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
#1,294
National first-name rank
People counted
28K
28,421 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keira is White at 65.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.4%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). 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 Keira 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 Keira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.6% · 18,656
- Hispanic or Latino11.4% · 3,254
- Two or more races10.6% · 3,010
- Black or African American7.2% · 2,055
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 1,201
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 245
Gender
Gender distribution for Keira
Out of the 33,369 babies given the name Keira since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Keira as a male name
- Ranked #10,465 in 2009
- 7 male births in 2009
- Peak: 2009 (7 births)
Keira as a female name
- Ranked #609 in 2024
- 492 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (3,022 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keira appears almost entirely female. Of the 28,424 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Keira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keira from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 14,527 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
Keira 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 Keira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keiras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Keira, while Vermont, Wyoming, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 615 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keira
The name Keira is derived from the ancient Irish Gaelic word "ciar," which means "black" or "dark-featured." It is believed to have originated in Ireland and Scotland in the early Middle Ages, around the 5th or 6th century CE.
Keira was a relatively uncommon name in ancient times, but it did appear in some historical records and texts. One of the earliest known references to the name is in the Irish Annals, which recorded the death of a woman named Ciar in the year 580 CE.
In the 9th century, a Scottish noblewoman named Keira was mentioned in the chronicles of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. She was said to be a descendant of the royal Gaelic line and played a role in the political affairs of the region.
During the High Middle Ages, from the 11th to 13th centuries, the name Keira was occasionally used by noble families in Ireland and Scotland. One notable example is Keira of Moray, a 12th-century Scottish princess who was a patron of the arts and literature.
In the 16th century, a woman named Keira O'Neill was a member of the powerful O'Neill clan in Ulster, Ireland. She was known for her involvement in the conflicts between the English and the Irish during the Tudor conquest of Ireland.
Another historical figure with the name Keira was Keira MacLeod, a 17th-century Scottish noblewoman from the Isle of Skye. She was renowned for her leadership and bravery during the Jacobite risings of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
While the name Keira was not extremely common throughout history, it has been used consistently in Ireland, Scotland, and other parts of the British Isles over the centuries. Its dark and mysterious origins have contributed to its enduring appeal and cultural significance.
People
Keira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keira 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
Keira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32,929 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keira 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 10,409 US residents.
Is Keira a common name?
We classify Keira as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 33,369 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keira most popular?
The single biggest year for Keira was 2006, when 3,022 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keira 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 Keira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 28,421 people with the name Keira, or 9.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,294 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 Keira 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 Keira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keira appears almost entirely female. Of the 28,424 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Keira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keira is White at 65.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.4%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). 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 Keira most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.6% (18,656 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 Keira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keira 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 Keira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keira 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 Keira 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 share the name Keira?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.