Kelsea
Kelsea was given to 38 girls in 2025, #3,868 among girls’ names; 6,040 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,940 Americans named Kelsea and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 23 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kelsea by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kelsea mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kelsea is “a female given name.”
Variant of Kelsey, presumably influenced by Chelsea.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kelsea?
#3,868 among girls’ names, 2025
Kelsea fell from #3,412 in 2015 to #3,868 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 26.3 to 23.6 per million.
457 babies in 1992, the peak
Kelsea peaked in 1992, when 457 girls were given it, #521 among girls’ names. The 38 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 38 | #3,868 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 38 | #3,928 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 42 | #3,675 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 57 | #2,947 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 55 | #3,019 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 73 | #2,407 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 58 | #2,873 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 70 | #2,520 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 92 | #2,102 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 80 | #2,354 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 47 | #3,412 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 36 | #4,143 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 31 | #4,591 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 54 | #3,117 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 51 | #3,242 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 67 | #2,680 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 75 | #2,519 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 84 | #2,328 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 83 | #2,321 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 113 | #1,816 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 121 | #1,653 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 126 | #1,566 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 150 | #1,352 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 144 | #1,346 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 145 | #1,327 | 0.08 |
| 2000 | 163 | #1,220 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 171 | #1,148 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 233 | #904 | 0.13 |
| 1997 | 292 | #731 | 0.17 |
| 1996 | 342 | #652 | 0.20 |
| 1995 | 337 | #642 | 0.19 |
| 1994 | 408 | #567 | 0.23 |
| 1993 | 452 | #530 | 0.25 |
| 1992 | 457 | #521 | 0.25 |
| 1991 | 368 | #614 | 0.20 |
| 1990 | 262 | #779 | 0.14 |
| 1989 | 221 | #844 | 0.12 |
| 1988 | 125 | #1,206 | 0.07 |
| 1987 | 82 | #1,549 | 0.05 |
| 1986 | 52 | #2,060 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 29 | #3,123 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 30 | #2,953 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 26 | #3,191 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 20 | #3,949 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,558 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,744 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #10,956 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 7 | #8,039 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #9,985 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kelsea a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kelsea has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 49 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kelsea: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kelsea, and how old are they?
5,940 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 6,040 Americans ever recorded as Kelsea. The median Kelsea alive today is 30 years old; half are between 23 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 5,052 people named Kelsea (5,017 women and girls, 35 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,679 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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 X | 1965-1980 | 24 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,150 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,050 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 713 |
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 Kelsea born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5 | #3,326 | 0.6× |
Where Kelsea is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kelsea is most over-represented in Tennessee: since 1976 it was given 1.2 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 Kelsea 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 197,991 babies since 1880, Kelsea is the fourth most given (3.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 38 of their 529 babies (7.2%), the third 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 Kelsea
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 Kelsea and names like it
- Compare Kelsea and KelseyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKelsea peaked in 1992.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kelsea since 1910.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Kelsea.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kelsea alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.