Keela
Keela was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,108 among girls’ names; 1,070 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,020 Americans named Keela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 40 years old and half are between 25 and 52.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Keela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Keela?
#16,108 among girls’ names, 2025
Keela fell from #7,802 in 2015 to #16,108 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 8.4 to 3.1 per million.
33 babies in 1978, the peak
Keela peaked in 1978, when 33 girls were given it, #2,596 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,108 | 3.1 |
| 2023 | 5 | #16,378 | 3.1 |
| 2022 | 9 | #10,791 | 5.5 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,278 | 3.7 |
| 2019 | 9 | #10,906 | 5.4 |
| 2018 | 9 | #11,005 | 5.3 |
| 2017 | 15 | #7,644 | 8.7 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,746 | 6.2 |
| 2015 | 15 | #7,802 | 8.4 |
| 2014 | 14 | #8,277 | 7.8 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 15 | #7,974 | 8.5 |
| 2012 | 19 | #6,734 | 10.8 |
| 2011 | 12 | #9,434 | 6.8 |
| 2010 | 13 | #8,969 | 7.3 |
| 2009 | 12 | #9,701 | 6.5 |
| 2008 | 25 | #5,651 | 13.2 |
| 2007 | 14 | #8,780 | 7.3 |
| 2006 | 7 | #14,341 | 3.7 |
| 2005 | 14 | #8,102 | 7.6 |
| 2004 | 9 | #11,169 | 4.9 |
| 2003 | 8 | #11,862 | 4.4 |
| 2002 | 5 | #16,786 | 2.8 |
| 2001 | 13 | #7,967 | 7.2 |
| 1999 | 11 | #8,510 | 6.2 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,690 | 5.1 |
| 1997 | 14 | #6,644 | 8.0 |
| 1996 | 14 | #6,546 | 8.0 |
| 1995 | 14 | #6,430 | 8.0 |
| 1994 | 12 | #7,338 | 6.7 |
| 1993 | 22 | #4,582 | 12.2 |
| 1992 | 30 | #3,620 | 16.3 |
| 1991 | 30 | #3,571 | 16.0 |
| 1990 | 31 | #3,465 | 16.3 |
| 1989 | 18 | #4,941 | 9.8 |
| 1988 | 16 | #5,161 | 9.0 |
| 1987 | 25 | #3,570 | 14.4 |
| 1986 | 21 | #3,949 | 12.2 |
| 1985 | 20 | #4,051 | 11.6 |
| 1984 | 21 | #3,797 | 12.5 |
| 1983 | 25 | #3,283 | 15.0 |
| 1982 | 23 | #3,585 | 13.6 |
| 1981 | 22 | #3,673 | 13.2 |
| 1980 | 16 | #4,613 | 9.6 |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,830 | 12.5 |
| 1978 | 33 | #2,596 | 21.5 |
| 1977 | 29 | #2,803 | 18.9 |
| 1976 | 23 | #3,135 | 15.7 |
| 1975 | 20 | #3,442 | 13.7 |
| 1974 | 32 | #2,414 | 21.8 |
| 1973 | 29 | #2,537 | 19.9 |
| 1972 | 28 | #2,549 | 18.4 |
| 1971 | 21 | #3,208 | 12.6 |
| 1970 | 24 | #2,889 | 13.7 |
| 1969 | 17 | #3,384 | 10.1 |
| 1968 | 9 | #4,938 | 5.5 |
| 1967 | 10 | #4,439 | 6.1 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,149 | 3.5 |
| 1965 | 15 | #3,330 | 8.5 |
| 1964 | 17 | #3,173 | 9.0 |
| 1963 | 17 | #3,122 | 8.8 |
| 1962 | 10 | #4,390 | 5.1 |
| 1961 | 9 | #4,701 | 4.5 |
| 1960 | 17 | #3,037 | 8.4 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,713 | 5.9 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,747 | 3.0 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,644 | 4.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Keela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Keela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 66 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Keela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Keela, and how old are they?
1,020 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 1,070 Americans ever recorded as Keela. The median Keela alive today is 40 years old; half are between 25 and 52.
The 2020 Census counted 952 people named Keela (946 women and girls, 6 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,011 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 82 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 310 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 334 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 183 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 112 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 674,752 babies since 1880, Keela is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 1,284 babies (<1%), again the eighth 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 Keela
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 Keela and names like it
- Compare Keela and KellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKeela peaked in 1978.
- Tennessee’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keela since 1910.
- The top names of 1978The year the most babies were named Keela.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Keela alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.