Kelsy
Feminine form of Celeste, meaning "heavenly, celestial" from the Latin "caelestis".
Name Census estimates that about 3,155 living Americans carry the first name Kelsy. It is a predominantly female name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Kelsy today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelsy births was 1992 (168 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelsy. 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 Kelsy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 108,638 Americans
Peak year
1992
168 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
1999 SSA rank
#5,508
Tracked since 1974
Census
Kelsy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,250 people with the first name Kelsy, which placed it at #5,319 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
#5,319
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,250 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelsy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsy is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.1%) and Black (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 Kelsy 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 Kelsy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.5% · 2,162
- Hispanic or Latino21.1% · 686
- Black or African American4.9% · 159
- Two or more races4.5% · 145
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 69
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 29
Gender
Gender distribution for Kelsy
Kelsy leans heavily female at 98.8% of total registrations, but 39 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kelsy as a male name
- Ranked #8,311 in 1999
- 7 male births in 1999
- Peak: 1979 (8 births)
Kelsy as a female name
- Ranked #5,508 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (163 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelsy leans strongly female. 3,136 people counted with this name were female (96.4%), compared with 116 male bearers (3.6%).
Popularity
Kelsy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelsy from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,469 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
Kelsy 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 Kelsy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelsys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Kelsy, while Virginia, North Dakota, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 49 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelsy
The name Kelsy is derived from the Gaelic word "cailleach," which means "old woman" or "nun." Its roots can be traced back to ancient Celtic folklore and mythology, where the cailleach was often depicted as a powerful, wise, and sometimes fearsome figure associated with winter and the transition between seasons.
In early Irish and Scottish traditions, the cailleach was revered as a goddess or a mythical being who embodied the harsh yet regenerative forces of nature. She was believed to wield control over the weather, especially during the winter months, and her appearance was said to signal the onset of spring. The name Kelsy likely emerged as a way to honor or invoke the protective and nurturing aspects of this mythological figure.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kelsy can be found in the Irish Annals of the Four Masters, a 17th-century chronicle that mentions a woman named Cailleach Dé Danann in connection with ancient Irish legends. Other early references to variations of the name, such as Cailleach Bhéarra and Cailleach Bheara, appear in medieval Scottish and Irish texts.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kelsy. In the 12th century, Cailleach of Beare was a legendary Irish pirate queen who terrorized the waters off the coast of County Cork. Another famous bearer of the name was Kelsy Grammer, an American actor and producer best known for his role as Frasier Crane in the television sitcoms "Cheers" and "Frasier" (born 1955).
In literature, the name Kelsy appears in the works of Scottish author George MacDonald, who featured a character named Caillen or Caillionta in his 19th-century fantasy novels. Additionally, Kelsy Michauda was a prominent American artist and illustrator in the early 20th century, known for her work in children's books and magazines (1884-1966).
During the Middle Ages, Kelsy Figueres was a Spanish noblewoman and courtier who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabella I of Castile (c. 1470-1540). More recently, Kelsy Mayer was an influential American lawyer and civil rights activist who played a pivotal role in the desegregation of public schools in the 1950s and 1960s (1905-1986).
People
Kelsy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelsy 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
Kelsy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelsy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,155 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelsy 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 108,638 US residents.
Is Kelsy a common name?
We classify Kelsy as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,254 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelsy most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelsy was 1992, when 168 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelsy is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kelsy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,250 people with the name Kelsy, or 1.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,319 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 Kelsy 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 Kelsy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelsy leans strongly female. 3,136 people counted with this name were female (96.4%), compared with 116 male bearers (3.6%). 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 Kelsy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsy is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.1%) and Black (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 Kelsy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelsy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (2,162 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 Kelsy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelsy a female name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Kelsy 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 Kelsy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelsy 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 Kelsy 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 Kelsy?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.