Kellye
Kellye was last recorded in 2001, when 8 babies were given it; 2,347 Americans have been recorded with it between 1955 and 2001 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,160 Americans named Kellye and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (92% of everyone recorded); the median is 52 years old and half are between 40 and 61.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kellye by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kellye?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #11,520, in 2001; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
145 babies in 1987, the peak
Kellye peaked in 1987, when 145 girls were given it, #1,059 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 8 | #11,520 | 4.4 |
| 2000 | 5 | #16,294 | 2.8 |
| 1998 | 6 | #13,257 | 3.4 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,410 | 5.2 |
| 1996 | 11 | #7,846 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 15 | #6,107 | 8.5 |
| 1994 | 17 | #5,566 | 9.5 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,354 | 5.5 |
| 1992 | 20 | #4,941 | 10.8 |
| 1991 | 39 | #2,953 | 20.8 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 47 | #2,536 | 24.8 |
| 1989 | 54 | #2,227 | 29.3 |
| 1988 | 80 | #1,624 | 44.9 |
| 1987 | 145 | #1,059 | 83.4 |
| 1986 | 102 | #1,312 | 59.5 |
| 1985 | 41 | #2,414 | 23.8 |
| 1984 | 37 | #2,534 | 22.0 |
| 1983 | 58 | #1,823 | 34.7 |
| 1982 | 52 | #2,001 | 30.7 |
| 1981 | 38 | #2,511 | 22.8 |
| 1980 | 38 | #2,505 | 22.9 |
| 1979 | 49 | #2,067 | 30.5 |
| 1978 | 50 | #1,948 | 32.6 |
| 1977 | 76 | #1,454 | 49.6 |
| 1976 | 47 | #1,921 | 32.1 |
| 1975 | 46 | #1,944 | 31.6 |
| 1974 | 42 | #2,013 | 28.6 |
| 1973 | 39 | #2,077 | 26.7 |
| 1972 | 52 | #1,707 | 34.2 |
| 1971 | 65 | #1,529 | 39.1 |
| 1970 | 78 | #1,346 | 44.6 |
| 1969 | 75 | #1,310 | 44.5 |
| 1968 | 88 | #1,151 | 53.6 |
| 1967 | 72 | #1,273 | 43.6 |
| 1966 | 76 | #1,234 | 44.9 |
| 1965 | 76 | #1,238 | 43.1 |
| 1964 | 98 | #1,107 | 51.7 |
| 1963 | 97 | #1,108 | 50.3 |
| 1962 | 84 | #1,207 | 42.7 |
| 1961 | 88 | #1,176 | 43.6 |
| 1960 | 56 | #1,472 | 27.7 |
| 1959 | 63 | #1,353 | 31.1 |
| 1958 | 55 | #1,440 | 27.3 |
| 1957 | 27 | #2,137 | 13.2 |
| 1956 | 9 | #4,306 | 4.5 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,954 | 3.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kellye a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kellye has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kellye: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kellye, and how old are they?
2,160 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 92% of the 2,347 Americans ever recorded as Kellye. The median Kellye alive today is 52 years old; half are between 40 and 61.
The 2020 Census counted 2,149 people named Kellye (2,129 women and girls, 20 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,215 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 497 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 895 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 743 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 28 |
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 Kellye born?
The states with the most babies named Kellye are Texas, Tennessee and California, with 78% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 501 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Tennessee | 237 | not ranked | 4.8× |
| California | 107 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Louisiana | 43 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Oklahoma | 43 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Alabama | 35 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Mississippi | 23 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Kentucky | 20 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Arkansas | 19 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 12 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Kellye is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kellye is most over-represented in Tennessee: since 1955 it was given 4.8 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 Kellye 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 759,206 babies since 1880, Kellye is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 720 babies recorded by SSA was a Kellye (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Kellye
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 Kellye and names like it
- Compare Kellye and KellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sKellye peaked in 1987.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kellye since 1910.
- The top names of 1987The year the most babies were named Kellye.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Kellye alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.