Kelcie
A feminine variant of the Gaelic name Kelsey meaning "green field" or "descendent of the victorious people".
Name Census estimates that about 3,217 living Americans carry the first name Kelcie. It is a predominantly female name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Kelcie today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelcie births was 1993 (228 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelcie. 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 Kelcie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 106,545 Americans
Peak year
1993
228 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
1992 SSA rank
#8,157
Tracked since 1947
Census
Kelcie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,930 people with the first name Kelcie, which placed it at #5,727 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
#5,727
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,930 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelcie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelcie is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Kelcie 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 Kelcie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.5% · 2,330
- Black or African American8.3% · 243
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 129
- Two or more races4.4% · 128
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 72
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 28
Gender
Gender distribution for Kelcie
Kelcie leans heavily female at 98.9% of total registrations, but 37 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kelcie as a male name
- Ranked #9,151 in 1992
- 5 male births in 1992
- Peak: 1988 (14 births)
Kelcie as a female name
- Ranked #8,157 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (228 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelcie leans strongly female. 2,870 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 64 male bearers (2.2%).
Popularity
Kelcie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelcie from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,669 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kelcie 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 Kelcie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelcies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kelcie, while West Virginia, Wisconsin, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 42 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelcie
The name Kelcie is of Scottish origin, derived from the Gaelic name Cailín, meaning "bright-headed" or "white-headed." Its roots can be traced back to the early Middle Ages in Scotland, where it was a common name for girls born with fair hair.
In ancient Celtic cultures, hair color held symbolic significance, with fair or light hair often associated with purity, innocence, and divine blessing. The name Kelcie was therefore a mark of honor and distinction, bestowed upon those deemed blessed by the gods.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name appears in the Annals of Ulster, a medieval chronicle detailing events in Ireland and Scotland from the 5th to the 16th centuries. Here, a woman named Kelcie is mentioned as the wife of a Scottish clan chieftain in the 12th century.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the name Kelcie remained popular among Scottish noble families, with several notable figures bearing the name. One such individual was Kelcie MacLeod (1450-1515), a renowned warrior and poet from the Isle of Skye, whose exploits were celebrated in traditional Scottish ballads.
As the centuries passed, the name spread beyond Scotland, with variations such as Kelsey and Kelcey gaining popularity in other parts of the British Isles and eventually in North America. One notable bearer of the name was Kelcie Winslow (1809-1891), an American abolitionist and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the Underground Railroad.
In more recent times, the name Kelcie has been associated with several accomplished individuals, including Kelcie Moseley-Braun (born 1947), the first African American woman elected to the United States Senate, and Kelcie Overbey (born 1987), a Canadian actress known for her roles in television series like The Handmaid's Tale.
People
Kelcie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelcie 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
Kelcie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelcie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,217 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelcie 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 106,545 US residents.
Is Kelcie a common name?
We classify Kelcie as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,318 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelcie most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelcie was 1993, when 228 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelcie is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kelcie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,930 people with the name Kelcie, or 0.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,727 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 Kelcie 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 Kelcie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelcie leans strongly female. 2,870 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 64 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Kelcie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelcie is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Kelcie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelcie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.5% (2,330 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 Kelcie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelcie a female name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Kelcie 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 Kelcie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelcie 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 Kelcie 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 Kelcie?
Find out how many Americans are named Kelcie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.