Kelly
A feminine name of Irish origin meaning "bright-headed".
Name Census estimates that about 494,171 living Americans carry the first name Kelly. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Kelly today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelly births was 1968 (20,197 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelly. 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 Kelly with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kelly started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Kelly have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
494K
~ 1 in 694 Americans
Peak year
1968
20,197 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#868
Tracked since 1880
Census
Kelly in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 499,226 people with the first name Kelly, which placed it at #85 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
#85
National first-name rank
People counted
499K
499,226 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
165.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelly
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelly is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Black (3.3%). 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 Kelly 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 Kelly at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.6% · 427,397
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 25,501
- Black or African American3.3% · 16,500
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 14,049
- Two or more races2.6% · 13,098
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2,681
Gender
Gender distribution for Kelly
Kelly leans heavily female at 85.2% of total registrations, but 82,317 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kelly as a male name
- Ranked #1,579 in 2024
- 109 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1967 (3,093 births)
Kelly as a female name
- Ranked #868 in 2024
- 310 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1977 (18,234 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelly leans strongly female. 437,520 people counted with this name were female (87.6%), compared with 61,702 male bearers (12.4%).
Popularity
Kelly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelly from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 156,056 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kelly 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 Kelly during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 119 | 0 | 119 |
| 1890s | 142 | 0 | 142 |
| 1900s | 206 | 17 | 223 |
| 1910s | 883 | 73 | 956 |
| 1920s | 1,276 | 118 | 1,394 |
| 1930s | 1,294 | 127 | 1,421 |
| 1940s | 2,864 | 559 | 3,423 |
| 1950s | 13,133 | 15,358 | 28,491 |
| 1960s | 28,004 | 128,052 | 156,056 |
| 1970s | 17,322 | 133,548 | 150,870 |
| 1980s | 9,776 | 109,540 | 119,316 |
| 1990s | 4,139 | 55,723 | 59,862 |
| 2000s | 1,540 | 21,616 | 23,156 |
| 2010s | 1,070 | 7,201 | 8,271 |
| 2020s | 549 | 1,709 | 2,258 |
Geography
Where Kellys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kelly, while Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10,778 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelly
The name Kelly is derived from the Irish Gaelic surname Ó Ceallaigh, which means "descendant of Ceallach". Ceallach was an ancient Irish personal name that may have meant "bright-headed" or "frequenting churches".
The name Kelly originated in Ireland, where it was first used as a surname for descendants of the family of Ceallach. It later transitioned into use as a given name, likely in the 19th century during a period of increased Irish immigration to English-speaking countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kelly being used as a first name is Kelly Miller, an African American mathematician, sociologist, and author who was born in 1863. Another notable early bearer of the name was Kelly Petillo, an American baseball player who was born in 1892.
In the early 20th century, the name Kelly gained popularity as a feminine given name, likely influenced by the fame of actresses such as Kelly Dempster (1892-1949) and Kelly Emberg (1903-1993). The name was also borne by Kelly Myrna (1908-1951), a Danish actress and singer.
One of the most famous bearers of the name Kelly was Kelly Johnson (1910-1990), an American aeronautical engineer who played a leading role in the design of several famous aircraft, including the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft.
Another notable Kelly was Kelly Reichardt (born 1964), an American film director and screenwriter known for films such as Old Joy and Meek's Cutoff. Other famous Kellys include Kelly Clarkson (born 1982), an American singer and songwriter, and Kelly Holmes (born 1970), a British former athlete who won gold medals in the 800m and 1500m events at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Kelly
People
Kelly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelly 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
Kelly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 494,171 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelly 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 694 US residents.
Is Kelly a common name?
We classify Kelly as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 555,958 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelly most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelly was 1968, when 20,197 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelly is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kelly in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 499,226 people with the name Kelly, or 165.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #85 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 Kelly 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 Kelly?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelly leans strongly female. 437,520 people counted with this name were female (87.6%), compared with 61,702 male bearers (12.4%). 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 Kelly?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelly is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Black (3.3%). 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 Kelly most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelly in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.6% (427,397 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 Kelly in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelly a female name?
Yes, 85.2% of people registered as Kelly 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 Kelly still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelly 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 Kelly 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 Kelly?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Kelly at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.