Kelsi
A feminine name of Scottish origin referring to a waterfall or river.
Name Census estimates that about 9,811 living Americans carry the first name Kelsi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kelsi today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelsi births was 1991 (624 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelsi. 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 Kelsi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
9.8K
~ 1 in 34,936 Americans
Peak year
1991
624 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,240
Tracked since 1969
Census
Kelsi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,885 people with the first name Kelsi, which placed it at #2,656 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
#2,656
National first-name rank
People counted
8.9K
8,885 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelsi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsi is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Black (7.9%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Kelsi 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 Kelsi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.1% · 7,113
- Black or African American7.9% · 703
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 459
- Two or more races4.7% · 419
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 121
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 70
Popularity
Kelsi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelsi from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 5,054 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
Kelsi 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 Kelsi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelsis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kelsi, while South Dakota, Hawaii, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 190 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelsi
The name Kelsi is a modern feminine given name, derived from the Scottish surname Kelso. The surname Kelso itself originated from a place name, referring to the town of Kelso in the Scottish Borders region. The town's name is believed to have stemmed from the Brittonic language, potentially meaning "chalky place" or "cold place."
While the name Kelsi does not have a long historical lineage as a given name, its roots can be traced back to the 12th century when the town of Kelso was first recorded. The town's name was initially spelled as "Calchvyn" in 1159, evolving into "Kelchou" in 1165, and eventually becoming "Kelso" by the 15th century.
There are no known references to the name Kelsi in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, the earliest documented use of the name as a given name dates back to the late 20th century, coinciding with the rise of unique and creative baby names inspired by surnames and place names.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kelsi can be found in the case of Kelsi Browning, an American actress born in 1982. Another notable figure with this name is Kelsi Monroe, an American pornographic actress born in 1991.
Kelsi Sheren, an American softball player, was born in 1990 and played for the University of Oklahoma. Kelsi Worrell, an American swimmer, was born in 1994 and has won multiple medals at international competitions, including the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Kelsi Chudoba, an American beauty pageant titleholder, was born in 1993 and was crowned Miss Nebraska USA in 2016. She later competed in the Miss USA 2016 pageant.
It is worth noting that while the name Kelsi has gained popularity in recent decades, its historical roots and earliest recorded uses can be traced back to the Scottish town of Kelso and the evolution of its name over several centuries.
People
Kelsi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelsi 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
Kelsi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelsi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,811 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelsi 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 34,936 US residents.
Is Kelsi a common name?
We classify Kelsi as "Rare". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,113 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelsi most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelsi was 1991, when 624 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelsi 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 Kelsi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,885 people with the name Kelsi, or 2.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,656 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 Kelsi 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 Kelsi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelsi appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,881 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Kelsi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsi is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Black (7.9%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Kelsi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelsi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.1% (7,113 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 Kelsi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelsi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kelsi 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 Kelsi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelsi 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 Kelsi 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 are named Kelsi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.