Kei
Kei was given to 14 boys in 2025, #6,280 among boys’ names; 837 Americans have been recorded with it since 1920 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kei by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kei mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kei is “a unisex given name from Japanese.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kei?
#6,280 among boys’ names, 2025
Kei fell from #3,401 in 2015 to #6,280 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 17.2 to 8.2 per million.
40 babies in 2015, the peak
Kei peaked in 2015, when 40 babies were given it (33 boys, #3,401 among boys’ names). The 14 births of 2025 are 35% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 14 | #6,280 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 22 | #4,632 | |
| 2023 | 7 | #12,799 | 26 | #4,164 |
| 2022 | under 5 | 17 | #5,537 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 15 | #5,901 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 18 | #5,140 | |
| 2019 | 5 | #16,779 | 22 | #4,559 |
| 2018 | 6 | #14,741 | 25 | #4,151 |
| 2017 | under 5 | 25 | #4,176 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 30 | #3,646 |
Every recorded year (51)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #13,738 | 33 | #3,401 |
| 2014 | 5 | #17,879 | 25 | #4,074 |
| 2013 | under 5 | 19 | #4,891 | |
| 2012 | 5 | #18,221 | 16 | #5,601 |
| 2011 | 7 | #14,062 | 11 | #7,259 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,238 | 6 | #11,503 |
| 2009 | under 5 | 14 | #6,278 | |
| 2008 | 5 | #19,020 | 17 | #5,369 |
| 2007 | under 5 | 13 | #6,453 | |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,140 | 12 | #6,688 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 12 | #6,425 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 18 | #4,690 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 13 | #5,718 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 11 | #6,314 | |
| 2001 | 8 | #11,515 | 14 | #5,280 |
| 2000 | 5 | #16,283 | 15 | #4,916 |
| 1999 | 7 | #11,993 | 8 | #7,518 |
| 1998 | under 5 | 11 | #5,653 | |
| 1997 | 5 | #14,885 | 13 | #4,809 |
| 1996 | under 5 | 5 | #9,792 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 10 | #5,712 | |
| 1994 | 12 | #7,340 | 10 | #5,673 |
| 1993 | 6 | #12,577 | 5 | #9,478 |
| 1992 | 7 | #11,050 | 11 | #5,067 |
| 1991 | 6 | #12,233 | 15 | #3,917 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,683 | 11 | #4,840 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,524 | 9 | #5,386 |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,774 | 5 | #7,914 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,499 | 6 | #6,542 |
| 1986 | under 5 | 7 | #5,652 | |
| 1985 | 8 | #7,913 | 7 | #5,459 |
| 1984 | under 5 | 9 | #4,386 | |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,053 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | under 5 | 10 | #4,096 | |
| 1981 | 8 | #7,732 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | 10 | #6,515 | 8 | #4,736 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,508 | 9 | #4,235 |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,492 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | under 5 | 6 | #5,495 | |
| 1925 | under 5 | 7 | #3,575 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 6 | #4,050 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Kei a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 837 Americans recorded as Kei, 22% are girls and 78% boys. In 2025 it went to 14 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kei: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kei, and how old are they?
An estimated 807 Americans named Kei and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 32. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,557 people named Kei (594 women and girls, 963 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 698 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Kei 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 3,685 babies since 1880, Kei is the second most given (23% of them). In 2025 it was given to 14 of their 43 babies (33%), 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 Kei
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 Kei and names like it
- Compare Kei and KeeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKei peaked in 2015.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kei since 1910.
- Japanese namesWiktionary’s origin for Kei: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2015The year the most babies were named Kei.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kei alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.