Kelso
Kelso was given to 14 boys in 2025, #6,283 among boys’ names; 387 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kelso by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kelso?
#6,283 among boys’ names, 2025
Kelso rose from #7,778 in 2015 to #6,283 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 5.2 to 8.2 per million.
24 babies in 2024, the peak
Kelso peaked in 2024, when 24 boys were given it, #4,380 among boys’ names. The 14 births of 2025 are 58% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | #6,283 | 8.2 |
| 2024 | 24 | #4,380 | 13.9 |
| 2023 | 23 | #4,533 | 13.4 |
| 2022 | 19 | #5,123 | 10.9 |
| 2021 | 13 | #6,505 | 7.4 |
| 2020 | 16 | #5,575 | 9.3 |
| 2019 | 16 | #5,690 | 8.9 |
| 2018 | 10 | #7,897 | 5.5 |
| 2017 | 13 | #6,498 | 7.0 |
| 2016 | 7 | #10,232 | 3.7 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 10 | #7,778 | 5.2 |
| 2014 | 9 | #8,478 | 4.7 |
| 2013 | 8 | #9,245 | 4.2 |
| 2012 | 7 | #10,278 | 3.7 |
| 2011 | 7 | #10,229 | 3.7 |
| 2010 | 7 | #10,243 | 3.6 |
| 2009 | 10 | #8,012 | 5.0 |
| 2008 | 8 | #9,447 | 3.9 |
| 2007 | 14 | #6,110 | 6.7 |
| 2006 | 15 | #5,671 | 7.3 |
| 2005 | 5 | #12,435 | 2.5 |
| 2003 | 6 | #10,260 | 3.0 |
| 2002 | 9 | #7,353 | 4.6 |
| 2001 | 5 | #11,509 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 5 | #9,483 | 2.5 |
| 1944 | 5 | #3,683 | 3.7 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,800 | 3.5 |
| 1942 | 7 | #3,078 | 5.1 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,457 | 5.8 |
| 1933 | 10 | #2,455 | 10.1 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,249 | 6.7 |
| 1925 | 5 | #4,581 | 4.5 |
| 1924 | 7 | #3,677 | 6.2 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,554 | 4.6 |
| 1921 | 12 | #2,559 | 10.9 |
| 1920 | 5 | #4,639 | 4.7 |
| 1919 | 7 | #3,580 | 7.1 |
| 1918 | 6 | #3,941 | 5.9 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,066 | 8.6 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,694 | 6.7 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,632 | 7.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kelso a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kelso has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 41 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kelso: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kelso, and how old are they?
An estimated 286 Americans named Kelso and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (74% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 18. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 301 people named Kelso (21 women and girls, 280 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 189 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,732 babies since 1880, Kelso is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 14 of their 31 babies (45%), again the second 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 Kelso
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 Kelso and names like it
- Compare Kelso and CelsoBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKelso peaked in 2024.
- Kentucky’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kelso since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Kelso.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kelso alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.