Kely
Kely was last recorded in 2019, when 5 babies were given it; 252 Americans have been recorded with it between 1967 and 2019 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kely by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kely?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,790, in 2019; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
12 babies in 1987, the peak
Kely peaked in 1987, when 12 babies were given it (7 girls, #9,258 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 5 | #16,790 | 3.0 |
| 2017 | 5 | #17,179 | 2.9 |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,618 | 3.4 |
| 2012 | 6 | #15,929 | 3.4 |
| 2011 | 7 | #14,067 | 4.0 |
| 2010 | 8 | #12,874 | 4.5 |
| 2009 | 8 | #13,069 | 4.4 |
| 2008 | 12 | #9,782 | 6.3 |
| 2007 | 9 | #12,152 | 4.7 |
| 2006 | 8 | #12,988 | 4.2 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 9 | #11,376 | 4.9 |
| 2004 | 8 | #12,190 | 4.4 |
| 2003 | 7 | #13,135 | 3.8 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,664 | 5.0 |
| 2001 | 11 | #9,056 | 6.1 |
| 2000 | 5 | #16,296 | 2.8 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,696 | 5.1 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,281 | 4.6 |
| 1996 | 5 | #14,614 | 2.9 |
| 1995 | 7 | #11,110 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,776 | 4.5 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,258 | 4.0 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,761 | 4.1 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,470 | 4.2 |
| 1982 | 11 | #6,116 | 6.5 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,668 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,645 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 5 | #10,958 | 3.1 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,928 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,667 | 4.8 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,746 | 3.4 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,284 | 4.8 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,380 | 3.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kely a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 252 Americans recorded as Kely, 96% are girls and 4% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kely: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kely, and how old are they?
An estimated 245 Americans named Kely and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 28 years old and half are between 19 and 44. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 790 people named Kely (684 women and girls, 106 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 247 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.2 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
Kely is a less common spelling of Kelly: SSA has recorded 252 Kely and 556,365 Kelly since 1880.
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. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kely
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.