Skye
Meaning of Scottish origin referring to the cloudy Scottish sky.
Name Census estimates that about 26,001 living Americans carry the first name Skye. It sits at #480 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Skye today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Skye births was 2014 (946 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Skye. 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 Skye with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
26K
~ 1 in 13,182 Americans
Peak year
2014
946 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#480
Tracked since 1952
Census
Skye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,360 people with the first name Skye, which placed it at #1,583 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
#1,583
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
20,360 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Skye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Skye is White at 54.7%. The next largest groups are Black (18.3%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Skye 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 Skye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.7% · 11,134
- Black or African American18.3% · 3,722
- Hispanic or Latino12.3% · 2,505
- Two or more races8.9% · 1,821
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 793
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 385
Gender
Gender distribution for Skye
Skye leans heavily female at 89.3% of total registrations, but 2,844 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Skye as a male name
- Ranked #2,278 in 2024
- 63 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (86 births)
Skye as a female name
- Ranked #480 in 2024
- 642 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (887 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Skye leans strongly female. 18,034 people counted with this name were female (88.6%), compared with 2,323 male bearers (11.4%).
Popularity
Skye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Skye from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 8,054 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Skye remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Skye 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 Skye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Skyes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Skye, while North Dakota, Rhode Island, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 446 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Skye
The name Skye is believed to have originated from the Isle of Skye, the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The name itself is derived from the Old Norse word "ský," meaning "cloud" or "mist," which likely refers to the misty and cloudy weather often experienced on the island.
The Isle of Skye has a rich history dating back to the Mesolithic period, with evidence of human habitation from as early as 4000 BC. The name Skye is thought to have emerged during the Viking era, when Norse settlers arrived on the island in the 9th century AD.
While the name Skye does not appear to have been recorded in any significant historical texts or religious scriptures, it has been used as a given name for both males and females throughout history. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Skye is from the 16th century, when a Scottish nobleman named Skye MacLeod was mentioned in historical records.
In the 18th century, a notable figure named Skye Beaumont (1701-1784) was a French explorer and cartographer who is credited with mapping parts of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Another individual named Skye Hepworth (1798-1872) was a British botanist and naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of plant life in Australia.
In more recent times, the name Skye has gained popularity as a given name for females, particularly in the English-speaking world. One of the most famous individuals with the name is Skye McCole Bartusiak (1992-2014), an American actress best known for her roles in films such as "The Patriot" and "Don't Say a Word."
Other notable individuals named Skye include Skye Sweetnam (born 1988), a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress; Skye Gyngell (born 1963), an Australian chef and food writer; and Skye Stracke (born 1998), an American soccer player who has represented the United States at the youth international level.
Overall, the name Skye has a rich history rooted in the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and its meaning and origins are closely tied to the island's misty and cloudy weather. While not as common in earlier centuries, the name has gained widespread popularity in modern times, particularly as a given name for females.
People
Skye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Skye as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Skye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Skye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 26,001 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Skye 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 13,182 US residents.
Is Skye a common name?
We classify Skye as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,528 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Skye most popular?
The single biggest year for Skye was 2014, when 946 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Skye is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Skye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,360 people with the name Skye, or 6.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,583 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 Skye 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 Skye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Skye leans strongly female. 18,034 people counted with this name were female (88.6%), compared with 2,323 male bearers (11.4%). 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 Skye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Skye is White at 54.7%. The next largest groups are Black (18.3%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Skye most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Skye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.7% (11,134 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 Skye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Skye a female name?
Yes, 89.3% of people registered as Skye 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 Skye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Skye 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 Skye 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 Skye?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.