Keeley
Keeley was given to 135 girls in 2025, #1,567 among girls’ names; 6,741 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,610 Americans named Keeley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 15 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Keeley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Keeley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Keeley is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname, of recent usage.” Its etymology gives the senses “descendant of Caollaidhe” (Caollaidhe) and “slender, graceful” (caol).
Reduced Anglicized from Irish Ó Caollaidhe (“descendant of Caollaidhe”), a personal name based on the adjective caol (“slender, graceful”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Keeley?
#1,567 among girls’ names, 2025
Keeley rose from #1,943 in 2015 to #1,567 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 58.3 to 84.0 per million.
253 babies in 2007, the peak
Keeley peaked in 2007, when 253 girls were given it, #1,041 among girls’ names. The 135 births of 2025 are 53% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 135 | #1,567 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 135 | #1,572 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 140 | #1,527 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 122 | #1,717 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 91 | #2,097 | 0.06 |
| 2020 | 43 | #3,522 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 51 | #3,146 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 79 | #2,317 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 84 | #2,246 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 83 | #2,296 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 104 | #1,943 | 0.06 |
| 2014 | 149 | #1,500 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 173 | #1,348 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 159 | #1,441 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 187 | #1,274 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 216 | #1,134 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 236 | #1,084 | 0.13 |
| 2008 | 246 | #1,064 | 0.13 |
| 2007 | 253 | #1,041 | 0.13 |
| 2006 | 201 | #1,205 | 0.11 |
| 2005 | 166 | #1,326 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 161 | #1,325 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 186 | #1,165 | 0.10 |
| 2002 | 223 | #987 | 0.12 |
| 2001 | 187 | #1,125 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 213 | #994 | 0.12 |
| 1999 | 211 | #980 | 0.12 |
| 1998 | 195 | #1,018 | 0.11 |
| 1997 | 224 | #899 | 0.13 |
| 1996 | 157 | #1,158 | 0.09 |
| 1995 | 96 | #1,577 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 84 | #1,741 | 0.05 |
| 1993 | 101 | #1,544 | 0.06 |
| 1992 | 121 | #1,368 | 0.07 |
| 1991 | 102 | #1,522 | 0.05 |
| 1990 | 112 | #1,411 | 0.06 |
| 1989 | 98 | #1,481 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 96 | #1,440 | 0.05 |
| 1987 | 91 | #1,438 | 0.05 |
| 1986 | 97 | #1,347 | 0.06 |
| 1985 | 68 | #1,695 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 69 | #1,608 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 60 | #1,780 | 0.04 |
| 1982 | 55 | #1,933 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 47 | #2,174 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 53 | #1,991 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 45 | #2,202 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 44 | #2,140 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 37 | #2,398 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 29 | #2,688 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 25 | #2,915 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 30 | #2,522 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 24 | #2,861 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 23 | #2,935 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 23 | #3,002 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 26 | #2,740 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 26 | #2,618 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 28 | #2,328 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 16 | #3,260 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 12 | #3,828 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,340 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 17 | #3,174 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 17 | #3,123 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 13 | #3,672 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 19 | #2,888 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 16 | #3,147 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 33 | #1,967 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 13 | #3,457 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,738 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Keeley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Keeley has been given almost only to girls: 49 boys in 69 years of records.
Girls and boys named Keeley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Keeley, and how old are they?
6,610 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 6,741 Americans ever recorded as Keeley. The median Keeley alive today is 23 years old; half are between 15 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 5,771 people named Keeley (5,642 women and girls, 129 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,988 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 114 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 441 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,420 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,260 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,380 |
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 Keeley born?
The states with the most babies named Keeley are Ohio, California and Pennsylvania, with 41% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 11 | #844 | 0.6× |
| California | 10 | #2,024 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | #893 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 9 | #714 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,183 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 6 | #3,119 | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 6 | #1,054 | 1.1× |
| Kansas | 6 | #546 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,327 | 0.4× |
| Colorado | 5 | #983 | 0.8× |
Where Keeley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Keeley is most over-represented in Tennessee: since 1957 it was given 1.1 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 Keeley 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 641,187 babies since 1880, Keeley is the fourth most given (1.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 135 of their 834 babies (16%), the third most given that year.
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 Keeley
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 Keeley and names like it
- Compare Keeley and KellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKeeley peaked in 2007.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keeley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Keeley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Keeley.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Keeley alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.