Kerry
The given name of Irish origin meaning "dark-haired" or "dark one".
Name Census estimates that about 82,713 living Americans carry the first name Kerry. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 50.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Kerry today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kerry births was 1960 (3,127 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kerry. 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 Kerry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kerry sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Kerry have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
83K
~ 1 in 4,144 Americans
Peak year
1960
3,127 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,683
Tracked since 1920
Census
Kerry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 83,554 people with the first name Kerry, which placed it at #631 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
#631
National first-name rank
People counted
84K
83,554 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
27.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kerry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kerry is White at 83.8%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Kerry 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 Kerry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.8% · 70,021
- Black or African American9.4% · 7,887
- Two or more races2.6% · 2,152
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 1,737
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 1,265
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 492
Gender
Gender distribution for Kerry
Kerry is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 98,563 total registrations, 49,911 (50.6%) were male and 48,652 (49.4%) were female.
Kerry as a male name
- Ranked #2,683 in 2024
- 49 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1960 (2,176 births)
Kerry as a female name
- Ranked #11,611 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (2,206 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kerry on both sides of the split. Of the 83,556 people counted with this name, 38,345 were male (45.9%) and 45,211 were female (54.1%).
Popularity
Kerry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kerry from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 27,506 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
Kerry 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 Kerry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kerrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Kerry, while Delaware, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,805 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kerry
Kerry is an anglicized version of the Irish Gaelic name Ciarraí, which originated in County Kerry, Ireland. The name Ciarraí comes from the Irish Gaelic word 'ciar' meaning black or dark. It is believed to have been derived from the dark soil found in the region of County Kerry.
The earliest recorded use of the name Kerry dates back to the 6th century AD, when it was mentioned in the Annals of Inisfallen, an Irish chronicle. The name was used to refer to the people and territory of County Kerry, located in the southwestern part of Ireland.
In ancient Irish mythology, Kerry is associated with the legendary figure of Ciar, who was said to be the founder of the Ciarraige, a Gaelic Irish dynasty that ruled parts of County Kerry in the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Kerry was Kery O'Daly (c. 1180 – c. 1238), an Irish poet and historian from County Kerry. He is known for his work, the "Poem on the Tribes of Ireland," which is a valuable source of information on the genealogies and histories of Irish clans.
In the 16th century, Kerry O'Daly (c. 1510 – c. 1590) was a notable Irish poet and scholar from County Kerry. He was a member of the O'Daly clan, a renowned family of poets and historians.
Another notable figure with the name Kerry was Kerry Ingram (born 1999), an English actress best known for her role as Shireen Baratheon in the HBO series "Game of Thrones."
Kerry Conran (born 1971) is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for his debut film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" (2004), a critically acclaimed science fiction adventure film.
Kerry Washington (born 1977) is an American actress, producer, and director. She is known for her roles in films such as "Ray" (2004) and "Django Unchained" (2012), as well as the television series "Scandal" (2012-2018), for which she received several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy nominations.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Kerry
People
Kerry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kerry 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
Kerry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kerry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 82,713 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kerry 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 4,144 US residents.
Is Kerry a common name?
We classify Kerry as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 98,563 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kerry most popular?
The single biggest year for Kerry was 1960, when 3,127 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kerry is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kerry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 83,554 people with the name Kerry, or 27.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #631 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 Kerry 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 Kerry?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kerry on both sides of the split. Of the 83,556 people counted with this name, 38,345 were male (45.9%) and 45,211 were female (54.1%). 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 Kerry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kerry is White at 83.8%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Kerry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kerry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.8% (70,021 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 Kerry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kerry a male name?
Yes, 50.6% of people registered as Kerry in the SSA data are male. 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 Kerry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kerry 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 Kerry 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 Kerry?
Find out how many Americans are named Kerry on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.