Chelsey
Chelsey was given to 18 girls in 2025, #6,369 among girls’ names; 31,563 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 30,900 Americans named Chelsey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 34 years old and half are between 30 and 37.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Chelsey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Chelsey mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Chelsey is “a female given name transferred from the place name, variant of Chelsea.”
/ˈt͡ʃɛlsi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Chelsey?
#6,369 among girls’ names, 2025
Chelsey fell from #1,712 in 2015 to #6,369 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 68.9 to 11.2 per million.
2,886 babies in 1992, the peak
Chelsey peaked in 1992, when 2,886 babies were given it (2,880 girls, #117 among girls’ names). The 18 births of 2025 are under 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 18 | #6,369 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 23 | #5,481 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 41 | #3,718 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 32 | #4,395 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 46 | #3,399 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 45 | #3,406 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 72 | #2,457 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 65 | #2,653 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 83 | #2,261 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 102 | #1,959 | 0.06 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 123 | #1,712 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 140 | #1,558 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 147 | #1,502 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 161 | #1,418 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 182 | #1,294 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 206 | #1,181 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 233 | #1,094 | 0.13 |
| 2008 | 260 | #1,014 | 0.14 |
| 2007 | 347 | #827 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 342 | #799 | 0.18 |
| 2005 | 325 | #798 | 0.18 |
| 2004 | 356 | #739 | 0.19 |
| 2003 | 380 | #688 | 0.21 |
| 2002 | 423 | #605 | 0.24 |
| 2001 | 491 | #542 | 0.27 |
| 2000 | 580 | #475 | 0.32 |
| 1999 | 638 | #432 | 0.36 |
| 1998 | 832 | #348 | 0.47 |
| 1997 | 1,099 | #263 | 0.63 |
| 1996 | 1,285 | #223 | 0.73 |
| 1995 | 1,408 | #206 | 0.80 |
| 1994 | 1,655 | #178 | 0.93 |
| 1993 | 2,154 | #145 | 1.2 |
| 1992 | 2,880 | #117 | 1.6 |
| 1991 | 2,440 | #129 | 1.3 |
| 1990 | 2,447 | #128 | 1.3 |
| 1989 | 2,202 | #140 | 1.2 |
| 1988 | 1,878 | #149 | 1.1 |
| 1987 | 1,477 | #186 | 0.85 |
| 1986 | 808 | #303 | 0.47 |
| 1985 | 815 | #300 | 0.47 |
| 1984 | 729 | #322 | 0.43 |
| 1983 | 535 | #404 | 0.32 |
| 1982 | 322 | #569 | 0.19 |
| 1981 | 78 | #1,531 | 0.05 |
| 1980 | 83 | #1,460 | 0.05 |
| 1979 | 88 | #1,398 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 83 | #1,397 | 0.05 |
| 1977 | 68 | #1,578 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 60 | #1,641 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 45 | #1,966 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 49 | #1,803 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 33 | #2,313 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 29 | #2,462 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 25 | #2,813 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 17 | #3,607 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 13 | #3,978 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Chelsey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Chelsey has been given almost only to girls: 65 boys in 57 years of records.
Girls and boys named Chelsey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Chelsey, and how old are they?
30,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 31,563 Americans ever recorded as Chelsey. The median Chelsey alive today is 34 years old; half are between 30 and 37.
The 2020 Census counted 26,913 people named Chelsey (26,819 women and girls, 94 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 30,850 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 561 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 22,600 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,770 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 931 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Chelsey born?
The states with the most babies named Chelsey are Texas, California and Ohio, with 20% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2,272 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| California | 2,258 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 1,460 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Florida | 1,258 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 1,235 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| New York | 1,201 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 1,167 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 1,088 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Minnesota | 1,022 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Georgia | 997 | not ranked | 1.1× |
Where Chelsey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Chelsey is most over-represented in North Dakota: since 1969 it was given 2.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Chelsey with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 219,808 babies since 1880, Chelsey is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 18 of their 377 babies (4.8%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Chelsey
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Chelsey and names like it
- Compare Chelsey and ChelseaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sChelsey peaked in 1992.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Chelsey since 1910.
- From place namesWiktionary’s origin for Chelsey: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Chelsey.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Chelsey alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with CMost given first.