Keira
Keira was given to 469 girls in 2025, #622 among girls’ names; 33,843 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 33,500 Americans named Keira and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 11 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Keira by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Keira mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Keira is “a female given name from Irish.” Its etymology gives the sense “black, dark, little dark one” (ciar).
A modern feminine form of Kieran, from Irish ciar (“black, dark, little dark one”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Keira?
#622 among girls’ names, 2025
Keira fell from #245 in 2015 to #622 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.73 to 0.29 per 1,000.
3,022 babies in 2006, the peak
Keira peaked in 2006, when 3,022 girls were given it, #110 among girls’ names. The 469 births of 2025 are 16% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 469 | #622 | 0.29 |
| 2024 | 496 | #605 | 0.31 |
| 2023 | 524 | #568 | 0.33 |
| 2022 | 577 | #536 | 0.35 |
| 2021 | 662 | #472 | 0.40 |
| 2020 | 663 | #467 | 0.41 |
| 2019 | 888 | #357 | 0.53 |
| 2018 | 867 | #365 | 0.51 |
| 2017 | 990 | #332 | 0.57 |
| 2016 | 1,038 | #313 | 0.59 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,312 | #245 | 0.73 |
| 2014 | 1,469 | #228 | 0.82 |
| 2013 | 1,572 | #203 | 0.90 |
| 2012 | 1,652 | #190 | 0.94 |
| 2011 | 1,789 | #176 | 1.0 |
| 2010 | 1,863 | #165 | 1.0 |
| 2009 | 2,260 | #141 | 1.2 |
| 2008 | 2,736 | #123 | 1.4 |
| 2007 | 2,677 | #128 | 1.4 |
| 2006 | 3,022 | #110 | 1.6 |
| 2005 | 1,468 | #232 | 0.79 |
| 2004 | 1,244 | #257 | 0.68 |
| 2003 | 433 | #621 | 0.24 |
| 2002 | 238 | #942 | 0.13 |
| 2001 | 216 | #993 | 0.12 |
| 2000 | 226 | #944 | 0.12 |
| 1999 | 196 | #1,039 | 0.11 |
| 1998 | 175 | #1,100 | 0.10 |
| 1997 | 164 | #1,140 | 0.09 |
| 1996 | 129 | #1,321 | 0.07 |
| 1995 | 107 | #1,483 | 0.06 |
| 1994 | 133 | #1,278 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 123 | #1,345 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 142 | #1,226 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 136 | #1,242 | 0.07 |
| 1990 | 85 | #1,722 | 0.04 |
| 1989 | 91 | #1,554 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 75 | #1,711 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 63 | #1,846 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 70 | #1,678 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 90 | #1,417 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 59 | #1,820 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 48 | #2,088 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 77 | #1,542 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 32 | #2,813 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 32 | #2,827 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 32 | #2,761 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 27 | #2,976 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 34 | #2,531 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 42 | #2,080 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 68 | #1,505 | 0.05 |
| 1974 | 53 | #1,718 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 25 | #2,781 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 27 | #2,633 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 27 | #2,693 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 24 | #2,890 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 28 | #2,477 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 14 | #3,689 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 9 | #4,781 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 12 | #3,830 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 11 | #4,064 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 11 | #4,215 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,693 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,027 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Keira a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Keira has been given almost only to girls: 7 boys in 64 years of records.
Girls and boys named Keira: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Keira, and how old are they?
33,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 33,843 Americans ever recorded as Keira. The median Keira alive today is 17 years old; half are between 11 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 28,424 people named Keira (28,378 women and girls, 46 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 30,360 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 | 22 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 435 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,420 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 20,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 11,500 |
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 Keira born?
The states with the most babies named Keira are California, Texas and Massachusetts, with 38% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Massachusetts is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 95 | #343 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 34 | #866 | 0.6× |
| Massachusetts | 29 | #193 | 1.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 27 | #407 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 27 | #638 | 0.8× |
| New York | 25 | #668 | 1.2× |
| New Jersey | 19 | #412 | 1.3× |
| Washington | 17 | #422 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 16 | #607 | 0.8× |
| Colorado | 13 | #442 | 1.2× |
Where Keira is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Keira is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1962 it was given 1.6 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 Keira 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 206,065 babies since 1880, Keira is the fourth most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 469 of their 2,060 babies (23%), the second 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 Keira
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 Keira and names like it
- Compare Keira and KiaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKeira peaked in 2006.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keira since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Keira: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Keira.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Keira alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.