Keli
Keli was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,420 among girls’ names; 4,405 Americans have been recorded with it since 1955 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,150 Americans named Keli and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 46 years old and half are between 38 and 55.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Keli by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Keli?
#11,420 among girls’ names, 2025
Keli rose from #15,464 in 2015 to #11,420 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 3.4 to 5.0 per million.
190 babies in 1979, the peak
Keli peaked in 1979, when 190 girls were given it, #825 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,420 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 5 | #16,481 | under 0.01 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,721 | under 0.01 |
| 2021 | 5 | #16,480 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,287 | under 0.01 |
| 2018 | 5 | #16,911 | under 0.01 |
| 2016 | 12 | #9,151 | 0.01 |
| 2015 | 6 | #15,464 | under 0.01 |
| 2013 | 6 | #15,590 | under 0.01 |
| 2012 | 11 | #10,072 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 10 | #10,786 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 11 | #10,127 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 10 | #11,083 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 21 | #6,453 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 20 | #6,690 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 14 | #8,489 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 14 | #8,103 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 19 | #6,362 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 33 | #4,069 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 38 | #3,547 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 29 | #4,261 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 22 | #5,228 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 39 | #3,280 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 30 | #3,873 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 38 | #3,127 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 36 | #3,261 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 48 | #2,599 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 52 | #2,438 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 66 | #2,076 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 76 | #1,859 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 82 | #1,752 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 86 | #1,708 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 96 | #1,498 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 108 | #1,328 | 0.06 |
| 1987 | 114 | #1,243 | 0.07 |
| 1986 | 125 | #1,145 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 119 | #1,189 | 0.07 |
| 1984 | 109 | #1,201 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 138 | #1,020 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 131 | #1,085 | 0.08 |
| 1981 | 146 | #1,000 | 0.09 |
| 1980 | 172 | #890 | 0.10 |
| 1979 | 190 | #825 | 0.12 |
| 1978 | 168 | #873 | 0.11 |
| 1977 | 178 | #839 | 0.12 |
| 1976 | 130 | #984 | 0.09 |
| 1975 | 103 | #1,132 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 95 | #1,179 | 0.06 |
| 1973 | 92 | #1,178 | 0.06 |
| 1972 | 105 | #1,088 | 0.07 |
| 1971 | 115 | #1,050 | 0.07 |
| 1970 | 109 | #1,091 | 0.06 |
| 1969 | 110 | #1,045 | 0.07 |
| 1968 | 103 | #1,025 | 0.06 |
| 1967 | 87 | #1,135 | 0.05 |
| 1966 | 130 | #882 | 0.08 |
| 1965 | 114 | #962 | 0.06 |
| 1964 | 66 | #1,389 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 59 | #1,452 | 0.03 |
| 1962 | 71 | #1,318 | 0.04 |
| 1961 | 65 | #1,389 | 0.03 |
| 1960 | 44 | #1,708 | 0.02 |
| 1959 | 28 | #2,170 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 32 | #1,964 | 0.02 |
| 1957 | 18 | #2,773 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 12 | #3,583 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 8 | #4,559 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Keli a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 4,405 Americans recorded as Keli, 99% are girls and 1% boys. In 2025 it went to 8 girls; SSA lists no boys 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 Keli: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Keli, and how old are they?
4,150 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 4,405 Americans ever recorded as Keli. The median Keli alive today is 46 years old; half are between 38 and 55.
The 2020 Census counted 4,280 people named Keli (4,098 women and girls, 182 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,193 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 343 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,880 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,510 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 364 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 61 |
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 Keli born?
The states with the most babies named Keli are California, Texas and Ohio, with 43% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 356 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Texas | 312 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 176 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 173 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Oklahoma | 152 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| Michigan | 126 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 102 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Florida | 95 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New York | 94 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Indiana | 74 | not ranked | 0.7× |
Where Keli is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Keli is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1955 it was given 2.6 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 Keli with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Keli?
Keli is a less common spelling of Kelly: SSA has recorded 4,405 Keli and 556,365 Kelly since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 773,810 babies since 1880, Keli is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 1,328 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 Keli
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 Keli and names like it
- Compare Keli and KellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKeli peaked in 1979.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keli since 1910.
- The top names of 1979The year the most babies were named Keli.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Keli alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.