Kelli
Kelli was given to 17 girls in 2025, #6,689 among girls’ names; 75,192 Americans have been recorded with it since 1945 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 70,600 Americans named Kelli and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 47 years old and half are between 39 and 56.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kelli by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kelli mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kelli is “a female given name transferred from the surname, variant of Kelly.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kelli?
#6,689 among girls’ names, 2025
Kelli fell from #3,733 in 2015 to #6,689 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 23.0 to 10.6 per million.
3,344 babies in 1970, the peak
Kelli peaked in 1970, when 3,344 babies were given it (3,331 girls, #115 among girls’ names). The 17 births of 2025 are under 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 17 | #6,689 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 15 | #7,416 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 22 | #5,646 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 24 | #5,396 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 23 | #5,477 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 32 | #4,313 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 39 | #3,823 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 37 | #3,966 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 30 | #4,631 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 40 | #3,819 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (79)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 41 | #3,733 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 52 | #3,162 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 42 | #3,670 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 66 | #2,696 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 67 | #2,649 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 76 | #2,465 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 98 | #2,082 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 118 | #1,833 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 129 | #1,699 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 152 | #1,464 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 194 | #1,187 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 260 | #927 | 0.14 |
| 2003 | 320 | #776 | 0.18 |
| 2002 | 368 | #682 | 0.20 |
| 2001 | 448 | #573 | 0.25 |
| 2000 | 483 | #538 | 0.27 |
| 1999 | 549 | #477 | 0.31 |
| 1998 | 572 | #452 | 0.32 |
| 1997 | 670 | #387 | 0.38 |
| 1996 | 792 | #351 | 0.45 |
| 1995 | 923 | #301 | 0.52 |
| 1994 | 1,063 | #263 | 0.60 |
| 1993 | 1,229 | #227 | 0.68 |
| 1992 | 1,336 | #216 | 0.72 |
| 1991 | 1,498 | #197 | 0.80 |
| 1990 | 1,605 | #182 | 0.85 |
| 1989 | 1,734 | #165 | 0.94 |
| 1988 | 1,864 | #150 | 1.0 |
| 1987 | 2,110 | #131 | 1.2 |
| 1986 | 2,000 | #142 | 1.2 |
| 1985 | 2,059 | #142 | 1.2 |
| 1984 | 1,981 | #147 | 1.2 |
| 1983 | 2,162 | #136 | 1.3 |
| 1982 | 2,373 | #127 | 1.4 |
| 1981 | 2,280 | #126 | 1.4 |
| 1980 | 2,486 | #125 | 1.5 |
| 1979 | 2,218 | #129 | 1.4 |
| 1978 | 2,326 | #124 | 1.5 |
| 1977 | 2,466 | #117 | 1.6 |
| 1976 | 1,820 | #147 | 1.2 |
| 1975 | 1,768 | #152 | 1.2 |
| 1974 | 1,606 | #168 | 1.1 |
| 1973 | 1,725 | #157 | 1.2 |
| 1972 | 1,899 | #150 | 1.2 |
| 1971 | 2,381 | #135 | 1.4 |
| 1970 | 3,331 | #115 | 1.9 |
| 1969 | 3,055 | #115 | 1.8 |
| 1968 | 2,321 | #137 | 1.4 |
| 1967 | 1,810 | #174 | 1.1 |
| 1966 | 1,730 | #190 | 1.0 |
| 1965 | 1,538 | #215 | 0.87 |
| 1964 | 1,650 | #212 | 0.87 |
| 1963 | 1,385 | #235 | 0.72 |
| 1962 | 1,317 | #240 | 0.67 |
| 1961 | 1,106 | #275 | 0.55 |
| 1960 | 955 | #301 | 0.47 |
| 1959 | 762 | #346 | 0.38 |
| 1958 | 533 | #399 | 0.26 |
| 1957 | 288 | #568 | 0.14 |
| 1956 | 132 | #870 | 0.07 |
| 1955 | 94 | #1,037 | 0.05 |
| 1954 | 62 | #1,261 | 0.03 |
| 1953 | 59 | #1,268 | 0.03 |
| 1952 | 30 | #1,839 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 18 | #2,433 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 8 | #4,141 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 9 | #3,754 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,705 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 5 | #4,900 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kelli a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kelli has been given almost only to girls: 301 boys in 79 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kelli: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kelli, and how old are they?
70,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 75,192 Americans ever recorded as Kelli. The median Kelli alive today is 47 years old; half are between 39 and 56.
The 2020 Census counted 66,659 people named Kelli (66,497 women and girls, 162 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 71,752 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 3 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 7,170 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 32,200 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 26,300 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,520 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 411 |
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 Kelli born?
The states with the most babies named Kelli are California, Texas and Ohio, with 23% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 6,604 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Texas | 5,705 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 4,384 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 3,785 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 3,517 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 2,857 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 2,514 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Florida | 2,495 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New York | 2,353 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Georgia | 2,148 | not ranked | 1.1× |
Where Kelli is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kelli is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1945 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 Kelli 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 770,434 babies since 1880, Kelli is the second most given (9.8% of them). In 2025 it was given to 17 of their 1,187 babies (1.4%), the eighth 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 Kelli
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 Kelli and names like it
- Compare Kelli and KellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKelli peaked in 1970.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kelli since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kelli: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1970The year the most babies were named Kelli.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Kelli alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.