Kess
An English name likely derived from the Irish surname Kasey, meaning "watchful" or "vigilant".
Name Census estimates that about 61 living Americans carry the first name Kess. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kess today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kess births was 1997 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kess. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Kess. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
61
~ 1 in 5,618,924 Americans
Peak year
1997
14 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2002 SSA rank
#16,829
Tracked since 1995
Census
Kess in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 153 people with the first name Kess, which placed it at #44,840 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
#44,840
National first-name rank
People counted
153
153 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kess
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kess is White at 69.9%. The next largest groups are Black (12.4%) and Two or More Races (7.8%). 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 Kess 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 Kess at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.9% · 107
- Black or African American12.4% · 19
- Two or more races7.8% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 3
Popularity
Kess: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kess from the 1990s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 44 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Kess remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kess 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 Kess during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kess
The given name Kess has its origins in the ancient Germanic languages, with roots that can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic word "kessil," which means "curly-haired." This name likely emerged during the early medieval period, around the 5th to 8th centuries CE, and was primarily used in regions that were inhabited by Germanic tribes, such as present-day Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of Scandinavia.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kess can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus, a collection of medieval documents from the 9th century, where it is spelled as "Kessil." This suggests that the name was in use among the Germanic populations of central and western Europe during the Early Middle Ages.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kess. One such figure was Kess the Elder (c. 980-1050), a renowned scholar and theologian from the Holy Roman Empire, who was renowned for his contributions to the study of medieval canon law. Another notable bearer of the name was Kess of Saxony (c. 1120-1190), a prominent military leader and statesman who played a pivotal role in the conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines during the 12th century.
In the 13th century, Kess the Chronicler (c. 1210-1280) was a celebrated writer and historian from the Duchy of Bavaria, known for his detailed accounts of the events and personalities of his time. The name also appears in religious texts, with Kess of Cologne (c. 1340-1410) being a influential Dominican friar and preacher who was instrumental in promoting the principles of the Catholic Reformation in the Rhineland region.
During the Renaissance period, Kess von Kalkar (c. 1450-1510) was a renowned painter and engraver from the Low Countries, whose works were highly influential in the development of the Northern Renaissance art style. His contemporaries included the famous artist Albrecht Dürer, who was known to have admired Kess's work.
While the name Kess has its roots in the Germanic languages, it has also been adopted and adapted in various cultures and regions over the centuries, with variations in spelling and pronunciation. However, its historical significance remains deeply rooted in the cultural heritage of the Germanic peoples and their contributions to the shaping of European history and civilization.
People
Kess + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kess 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
Kess: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kess?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 61 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kess 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 5,618,924 US residents.
Is Kess a common name?
We classify Kess as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 63 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kess most popular?
The single biggest year for Kess was 1997, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kess 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 Kess in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 153 people with the name Kess, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,840 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 Kess 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 Kess?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kess on both sides of the split. Of the 152 people counted with this name, 47 were male (30.9%) and 105 were female (69.1%). 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 Kess?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kess is White at 69.9%. The next largest groups are Black (12.4%) and Two or More Races (7.8%). 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 Kess most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kess in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.9% (107 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 Kess in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kess a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kess 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 Kess still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kess 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 Kess 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 called Kess?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.