Kelis
Kelis was given to 26 girls in 2025, #5,039 among girls’ names; 2,877 Americans have been recorded with it since 2000 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,850 Americans named Kelis and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 12 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kelis by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kelis?
#5,039 among girls’ names, 2025
Kelis fell from #2,099 in 2015 to #5,039 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 52.1 to 16.2 per million.
277 babies in 2007, the peak
Kelis peaked in 2007, when 277 girls were given it, #972 among girls’ names. The 26 births of 2025 are 9% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 26 | #5,039 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 32 | #4,430 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 48 | #3,350 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 73 | #2,479 | 0.04 |
| 2021 | 70 | #2,524 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 60 | #2,763 | 0.04 |
| 2019 | 75 | #2,389 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 99 | #1,990 | 0.06 |
| 2017 | 68 | #2,586 | 0.04 |
| 2016 | 73 | #2,495 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (26)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 93 | #2,099 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 106 | #1,899 | 0.06 |
| 2013 | 103 | #1,933 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 148 | #1,508 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 119 | #1,735 | 0.07 |
| 2010 | 135 | #1,607 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 199 | #1,245 | 0.11 |
| 2008 | 178 | #1,363 | 0.09 |
| 2007 | 277 | #972 | 0.14 |
| 2006 | 235 | #1,082 | 0.12 |
| 2005 | 142 | #1,484 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 191 | #1,177 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 88 | #2,035 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 71 | #2,294 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 54 | #2,752 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 108 | #1,635 | 0.06 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kelis a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kelis has been given almost only to girls: 6 boys in 26 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kelis: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kelis, and how old are they?
2,850 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,877 Americans ever recorded as Kelis. The median Kelis alive today is 17 years old; half are between 12 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 2,067 people named Kelis (2,023 women and girls, 44 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,564 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,930 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 920 |
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 Kelis born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 5 | #2,329 | 1.6× |
Where Kelis is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kelis is most over-represented in Georgia: since 2000 it was given 1.9 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 Kelis 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 3,147 babies since 1880, Kelis is the most given (91% of them). In 2025 it was given to 26 of their 31 babies (84%), again the 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 Kelis
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 Kelis and names like it
- Compare Kelis and CelesBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKelis peaked in 2007.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kelis since 1910.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Kelis.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kelis alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.