Kea
Kea was last recorded in 2022, when 8 babies were given it; 653 Americans have been recorded with it between 1964 and 2022 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kea by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kea?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #11,718, in 2022; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
28 babies in 1978, the peak
Kea peaked in 1978, when 28 girls were given it, #2,899 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8 | #11,718 | 4.9 |
| 2019 | 8 | #11,883 | 4.8 |
| 2012 | 6 | #15,917 | 3.4 |
| 2009 | 10 | #11,076 | 5.4 |
| 2008 | 5 | #19,009 | 2.6 |
| 2007 | 12 | #9,852 | 6.2 |
| 2006 | 8 | #12,975 | 4.2 |
| 2005 | 9 | #11,370 | 4.9 |
| 2004 | 9 | #11,166 | 4.9 |
| 2003 | 13 | #8,245 | 7.1 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 7 | #12,898 | 3.9 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,793 | 7.2 |
| 1999 | 7 | #11,988 | 3.9 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,267 | 6.2 |
| 1997 | 10 | #8,681 | 5.7 |
| 1996 | 9 | #9,163 | 5.1 |
| 1995 | 11 | #7,783 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 13 | #6,869 | 7.3 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,453 | 12.7 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,148 | 10.3 |
| 1991 | 20 | #4,894 | 10.7 |
| 1990 | 20 | #4,767 | 10.5 |
| 1989 | 18 | #4,940 | 9.8 |
| 1988 | 9 | #8,019 | 5.1 |
| 1987 | 18 | #4,563 | 10.4 |
| 1986 | 13 | #5,588 | 7.6 |
| 1985 | 16 | #4,730 | 9.3 |
| 1984 | 17 | #4,408 | 10.1 |
| 1983 | 27 | #3,095 | 16.2 |
| 1982 | 17 | #4,426 | 10.0 |
| 1981 | 22 | #3,672 | 13.2 |
| 1980 | 16 | #4,612 | 9.6 |
| 1979 | 19 | #3,967 | 11.8 |
| 1978 | 28 | #2,899 | 18.3 |
| 1977 | 23 | #3,318 | 15.0 |
| 1976 | 17 | #3,874 | 11.6 |
| 1975 | 20 | #3,441 | 13.7 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,119 | 10.2 |
| 1973 | 16 | #3,855 | 11.0 |
| 1972 | 16 | #3,785 | 10.5 |
| 1971 | 20 | #3,309 | 12.0 |
| 1970 | 11 | #4,893 | 6.3 |
| 1969 | 14 | #3,862 | 8.3 |
| 1968 | 8 | #5,357 | 4.9 |
| 1967 | 7 | #5,719 | 4.2 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,148 | 3.5 |
| 1964 | 9 | #4,783 | 4.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kea a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kea has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kea: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kea, and how old are they?
An estimated 628 Americans named Kea and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 41 years old and half are between 32 and 49. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 886 people named Kea (770 women and girls, 116 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 627 born in the U.S. The Census count is 41% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Kea rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 6,701 babies since 1880, Kea is the third most given (9.7% of them).
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 Kea
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 Kea and names like it
- Compare Kea and KeciaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKea peaked in 1978.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kea since 1910.
- The top names of 1978The year the most babies were named Kea.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kea alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.