Kelsey
Kelsey was given to 335 girls in 2025, #814 among girls’ names; 155,738 Americans have been recorded with it since 1891 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 152,000 Americans named Kelsey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 27 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kelsey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kelsey mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kelsey is “a female given name transferred from the surname, popular in the 1990s.” Its etymology gives the senses “ship” (cēol) and “victory” (siġe).
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From Old English cēol (“ship”) + siġe (“victory”).
/ˈkɛlsi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kelsey?
#814 among girls’ names, 2025
Kelsey fell from #344 in 2015 to #814 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.53 to 0.21 per 1,000.
11,882 babies in 1992, the peak
Kelsey peaked in 1992, when 11,882 babies were given it (11,713 girls, #23 among girls’ names). The 349 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 3% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 335 | #814 | 0.21 |
| 2024 | 430 | #673 | 0.27 |
| 2023 | 444 | #664 | 0.28 |
| 2022 | 466 | #633 | 0.28 |
| 2021 | 477 | #624 | 0.29 |
| 2020 | 574 | #526 | 0.36 |
| 2019 | 664 | #471 | 0.40 |
| 2018 | 740 | #421 | 0.44 |
| 2017 | 788 | #397 | 0.46 |
| 2016 | 859 | #383 | 0.48 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 955 | #344 | 0.53 |
| 2014 | 1,017 | #328 | 0.57 |
| 2013 | 1,049 | #304 | 0.60 |
| 2012 | 1,214 | #267 | 0.69 |
| 2011 | 1,266 | #254 | 0.72 |
| 2010 | 1,349 | #233 | 0.76 |
| 2009 | 1,521 | #212 | 0.83 |
| 2008 | 1,716 | #195 | 0.91 |
| 2007 | 1,699 | #202 | 0.88 |
| 2006 | 1,898 | #185 | 1.0 |
| 2005 | 1,960 | #173 | 1.1 |
| 2004 | 2,198 | #148 | 1.2 |
| 2003 | 2,569 | #130 | 1.4 |
| 2002 | 2,883 | #118 | 1.6 |
| 2001 | 3,267 | #100 | 1.8 |
| 2000 | 3,669 | #88 | 2.0 |
| 1999 | 4,400 | #72 | 2.5 |
| 1998 | 5,551 | #56 | 3.1 |
| 1997 | 5,573 | #57 | 3.2 |
| 1996 | 7,655 | #36 | 4.4 |
| 1995 | 8,184 | #33 | 4.7 |
| 1994 | 9,749 | #29 | 5.5 |
| 1993 | 11,380 | #24 | 6.3 |
| 1992 | 11,713 | #23 | 6.4 |
| 1991 | 11,435 | #26 | 6.1 |
| 1990 | 9,494 | #32 | 5.0 |
| 1989 | 9,256 | #31 | 5.0 |
| 1988 | 5,452 | #64 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 4,574 | #67 | 2.6 |
| 1986 | 2,517 | #112 | 1.5 |
| 1985 | 1,699 | #168 | 1.0 |
| 1984 | 1,555 | #177 | 0.92 |
| 1983 | 1,116 | #224 | 0.67 |
| 1982 | 791 | #310 | 0.47 |
| 1981 | 490 | #434 | 0.29 |
| 1980 | 308 | #603 | 0.19 |
| 1979 | 222 | #738 | 0.14 |
| 1978 | 164 | #888 | 0.11 |
| 1977 | 144 | #961 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 116 | #1,061 | 0.08 |
| 1975 | 105 | #1,113 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 88 | #1,246 | 0.06 |
| 1973 | 77 | #1,320 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 76 | #1,332 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 71 | #1,459 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 48 | #1,843 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 45 | #1,854 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 24 | #2,581 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 32 | #2,101 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 17 | #3,100 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 16 | #3,197 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 20 | #2,864 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 22 | #2,656 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 19 | #2,863 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 18 | #3,012 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 13 | #3,581 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 15 | #3,171 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 23 | #2,415 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 12 | #3,576 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 12 | #3,584 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 16 | #2,894 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 14 | #3,085 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 18 | #2,557 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 10 | #3,668 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,851 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 10 | #3,553 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 6 | #4,969 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 9 | #3,734 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 8 | #4,168 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,215 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,286 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 5 | #4,984 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kelsey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 155,738 Americans recorded as Kelsey, 97% are girls and 3% boys. Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Kelsey every year since 1972. In 2025 it went to 335 girls and 14 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kelsey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kelsey, and how old are they?
152,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 155,738 Americans ever recorded as Kelsey. The median Kelsey alive today is 32 years old; half are between 27 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 138,745 people named Kelsey (134,903 women and girls, 3,842 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 150,257 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 45 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 429 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,410 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 97,200 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 43,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,930 |
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 Kelsey born?
The states with the most babies named Kelsey are California, Texas and New York, with 30% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 34 | #868 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 34 | #867 | 0.7× |
| New York | 24 | #688 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 18 | #897 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 17 | #633 | 0.9× |
| Tennessee | 17 | #464 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 13 | #728 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 12 | #789 | 1.0× |
| Maryland | 12 | #445 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 11 | #690 | 0.7× |
Where Kelsey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kelsey is most over-represented in Iowa: since 1910 it was given 1.7 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 Kelsey 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, Kelsey is the most given (79% of them). In 2025 it was given to 349 of their 529 babies (66%), 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 Kelsey
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 Kelsey and names like it
- Compare Kelsey and KelsieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKelsey peaked in 1992.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kelsey since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kelsey: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Kelsey.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kelsey alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.