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Keith

Boys’ name Recorded 1888-2025

Keith was given to 311 boys in 2025, #801 among boys’ names; 440,123 Americans have been recorded with it since 1888 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).

An estimated 335,000 Americans named Keith and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (76% of everyone recorded); the median is 56 years old and half are between 44 and 66.

Babies named Keith each year, first recorded in 1888
Keith, 1880-2025; highest in 1957.2.5k5k7.5k10k13k188019001920194019601980200020251957 peak: 12,483
Keith, 1880-2025; highest in 1957.2.5k5k7.5k10k13k188019001920194019601980200020251957 peak: 12,483
Keith, 1880-2025; highest in 1957.2.5k5k7.5k10k13k18801905193019551980200520251957 peak: 12,483
Keith, 1880-2025; highest in 1957.2.5k5k7.5k10k13k18801930198020251957 peak: 12,483

Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).

Keith or KeathNames of the 1950sNames in New York

Births of Keith by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.

What does Keith mean?

Wiktionary, English section

Keith is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “wood” (meaning) and “from the battleground,” (or) and “wood” (meaning).

Also “a female given name from surname.”

As a Scottish surname, from the placename in Moray, Scotland, from Scottish Gaelic Cèith, meaning “wood” or “from the battleground,” which is probably borrowed from Pictish *ᚉᚓᚈ (cēt) meaning “wood”, or a forest, from Proto-Brythonic *koɨd.

As a German surname, from Middle High German kit (“sprout, offspring”); compare Middle High German kint.

/kiːθ/

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary, entry Keith (English), CC BY‑SA 4.0. Quoted from the entry; text after a cross-reference to another sense is left out.

Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).

How popular is Keith?

#801 among boys’ names, 2025

Keith fell from #424 in 2015 to #801 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.38 to 0.18 per 1,000.

12,483 babies in 1957, the peak

Keith peaked in 1957, when 12,483 babies were given it (12,437 boys, #36 among boys’ names). The 311 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.

Keith by year
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 boys
2025311#8010.18
2024337#7560.20
2023373#7130.22
2022382#6940.22
2021470#5920.27
2020461#5980.27
2019512#5500.29
2018571#5030.31
2017587#4930.32
2016634#4850.33
Every recorded year (137)
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 boys
2015729#4240.38
2014754#4120.39
2013761#3930.40
2012842#3620.44
2011806#3680.42
2010890#3460.46
2009967#3290.49
20081,061#3150.52
20071,158#2980.56
20061,250#2760.61
20051,165#2850.58
20041,315#2520.66
20031,313#2510.66
20021,326#2480.68
20011,432#2370.74
20001,525#2220.78
19991,662#2060.87
19981,785#1900.93
19972,000#1691.1
19962,183#1591.2
19952,457#1421.3
19942,785#1261.4
19933,265#1091.7
19923,628#1021.8
19914,124#892.0
19904,481#802.2
19894,893#702.4
19884,949#702.6
19874,783#692.6
19865,040#662.7
19855,214#642.8
19845,327#613.0
19835,313#613.0
19825,620#593.1
19815,621#583.1
19805,887#563.3
19796,186#523.6
19786,172#493.8
19776,597#484.0
19766,745#484.3
19756,823#494.4
19747,390#444.7
19738,165#415.2
19729,145#385.6
19719,851#375.6
19709,615#385.2
19699,445#365.3
19689,861#355.7
196711,006#346.3
196611,614#326.5
196510,670#355.7
196411,655#345.8
196312,243#336.0
196211,626#365.6
196112,275#355.8
196012,180#355.7
195911,758#395.5
195811,905#375.6
195712,437#365.8
195611,480#365.4
195510,418#395.1
19548,355#454.1
19537,375#473.7
19527,174#493.7
19515,767#593.1
19504,566#782.6
19493,878#852.2
19483,660#892.1
19473,684#912.0
19462,860#961.8
19452,165#1081.6
19442,293#1041.7
19432,382#1081.7
19421,785#1231.3
19411,652#1191.3
19401,512#1251.3
19391,506#1171.4
19381,535#1201.4
19371,342#1231.3
19361,402#1221.4
19351,369#1251.3
19341,352#1251.3
19331,315#1271.3
19321,315#1331.3
19311,377#1231.3
19301,354#1301.2
19291,242#1381.2
19281,223#1391.1
19271,232#1411.1
19261,120#1481.0
19251,138#1461.0
19241,071#1500.95
19231,104#1451.0
1922984#1570.90
1921998#1530.91
1920803#1750.75
1919653#1940.67
1918580#2140.57
1917518#2160.56
1916476#2240.53
1915422#2360.50
1914291#2510.44
1913212#2610.41
1912169#2730.39
191160#3560.27
191043#4110.22
190942#3660.26
190842#3510.27
190745#3180.31
190631#3910.23
190535#3500.26
190417#5510.13
190321#4600.18
190220#4820.16
190115#5200.14
190016#6380.11
189914#5320.13
18987#9440.06
18977#8920.06
189614#5720.12
18956#1,0300.05
189411#6530.10
189313#5580.12
18927#9090.06
18907#8480.06
18896#9310.05
18886#9900.05

Download Keith’s births by year (CSV)

Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.

Is Keith a boy’s or a girl’s name?

Keith has been given almost only to boys: 2,216 girls in 137 years of records.

Girls and boys named Keith: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.

How many people are named Keith, and how old are they?

335,000 alive in 2026, estimated

That is 76% of the 440,123 Americans ever recorded as Keith. The median Keith alive today is 56 years old; half are between 44 and 66.

The 2020 Census counted 328,988 people named Keith (656 women and girls, 328,332 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 356,377 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.

Alive today, by age

100-10919
90-99921
80-896,650
70-7941,500
60-6990,900
50-59 (median)77,200
40-4952,900
30-3935,900
20-2914,500
10-198,520
0-93,980

Alive today, by generation

By generation
GenerationBornAlive
Silent Generation1928-19456,250
Baby Boomers1946-1964116,000
Generation X1965-1980119,000
Millennials1981-199666,400
Generation Z1997-201220,200
Generation Alpha2013-20256,830

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 Keith born?

The states with the most babies named Keith are New York, California and Pennsylvania, with 22% of its births recorded by state since 1910.

States with the most births: girls and boys together; rank among boys’ names in the state in 2025
StateSince 1910Rank, boysvs. national
New York35,212#7861.0×
California32,237#1,0590.8×
Pennsylvania27,648#7701.1×
Ohio25,770#5681.1×
Illinois25,530#1,0861.1×
Michigan24,021#1,0521.3×
Texas19,198#1,1200.7×
New Jersey15,049#7351.1×
Florida13,193#6091.0×
Indiana12,915#9041.1×

Where Keith is more common than its national share predicts

Relative to its national share, Keith is most over-represented in North Dakota: since 1910 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.

North Dakota1.30×
South Dakota1.28×
Michigan1.26×
Iowa1.25×
District of Columbia1.19×
Maryland1.15×
Nebraska1.15×
Ohio1.14×

Bars start at 1× (as often as the national share predicts).

States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ 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 Keith 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 440,468 babies since 1880, Keith is the most given (100% of them). In 2025 it was given to 311 of their 311 babies (100%), again the most given.

Keith and the names spelled alike
NameSince 1880Births 2025Peak year
Keith440,1233111957
Keath228under 51972
Keyth59under 51989
Ceth58under 52000

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 Keith

Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.

NameRecorded1880-2025
Daryl67,477
Craig300,628
Gregory714,753
Terence34,460
Kurt86,054
Kirk68,264

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 Keith and names like it

  1. Compare Keith and KeathBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
  2. The most given names of the 1950sKeith peaked in 1957.
  3. New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keith since 1910.
  4. From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Keith: every such name, by how often it is given.
  5. The top names of 1957The year the most babies were named Keith.
  6. The names of Generation XMost people named Keith alive today were born 1965-1980.
  7. Names starting with KMost given first.

Compare Keith with another name