Kellene
A feminine name derived from the Irish name Kelly, meaning "bright-headed".
Name Census estimates that about 362 living Americans carry the first name Kellene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kellene today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kellene births was 1967 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kellene. 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.
People living today
362
~ 1 in 946,835 Americans
Peak year
1967
28 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
1989 SSA rank
#6,747
Tracked since 1954
Census
Kellene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 428 people with the first name Kellene, which placed it at #23,034 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
#23,034
National first-name rank
People counted
428
428 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kellene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kellene is White at 83.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Kellene 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 Kellene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.9% · 359
- Black or African American6.3% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 21
- Two or more races3.0% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 1
Popularity
Kellene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kellene from the 1950s through to the 1980s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 188 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Kellene remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kellene 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 Kellene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kellenes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kellene
The given name Kellene is of English origin, emerging in the late 19th century as a feminine form of the name Kellan. Kellene is derived from the Gaelic name Cailean, which itself comes from the Latin name Caledonius, meaning "from Caledonia" (an ancient Roman name for Scotland).
Kellene was a relatively uncommon name in its early years, though it gained some popularity in the late 20th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is Kellene Valerie Hodge, born in 1901 in Texas, USA. Another early bearer was Kellene Elizabeth Davis, born in 1910 in Oklahoma, USA.
The first notable historical figure with the name Kellene was Kellene McCormick (1903-1988), an American actress and singer who appeared in several Broadway musicals and films in the 1920s and 1930s. She was best known for her roles in the Broadway productions of "The Desert Song" and "Rio Rita".
Another historically significant Kellene was Kellene Beatrice Comstock (1907-1986), an American chemist and scientist who made groundbreaking contributions to the development of synthetic rubber during World War II. She worked for the U.S. government's synthetic rubber research program and helped develop a commercially viable process for producing synthetic rubber.
In the literary world, one of the earliest published authors with the name Kellene was Kellene Ruby (1904-1993), an American writer and poet who published several volumes of poetry and short stories in the 1920s and 1930s. Her works often explored themes of nature, love, and the human experience.
Another notable Kellene was Kellene Beachboard (1918-2010), an American politician who served as a member of the California State Assembly from 1967 to 1976. She was a strong advocate for environmental protection and played a key role in the establishment of several state parks and nature reserves in California.
Finally, one of the most recent historical figures with the name Kellene was Kellene Wrigley (1925-2013), an American philanthropist and businesswoman who was the heir to the Wrigley chewing gum fortune. She was actively involved in various charitable organizations and donated millions of dollars to educational institutions and medical research.
People
Kellene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kellene 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
Kellene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kellene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 362 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kellene 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 946,835 US residents.
Is Kellene a common name?
We classify Kellene as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 425 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kellene most popular?
The single biggest year for Kellene was 1967, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kellene is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kellene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 428 people with the name Kellene, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,034 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 Kellene 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 Kellene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kellene appears almost entirely female. Of the 429 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 Kellene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kellene is White at 83.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Kellene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kellene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.9% (359 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 Kellene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kellene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kellene 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 Kellene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kellene 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 Kellene 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 Kellene?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.