Kess
Kess was last recorded in 2002, when 5 babies were given it; 63 Americans have been recorded with it between 1995 and 2002 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kess by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kess?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,823, in 2002; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1997, the peak
Kess peaked in 1997, when 14 girls were given it, #6,651 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 5 | #16,823 | 2.8 |
| 2001 | 7 | #12,763 | 3.9 |
| 2000 | 7 | #12,483 | 3.9 |
| 1999 | 7 | #12,023 | 3.9 |
| 1998 | 7 | #11,770 | 4.0 |
| 1997 | 14 | #6,651 | 8.0 |
| 1996 | 10 | #8,495 | 5.7 |
| 1995 | 6 | #12,551 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kess a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kess has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 8 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kess: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kess, and how old are they?
An estimated 62 Americans named Kess and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 152 people named Kess (105 women and girls, 47 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 62 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Kess rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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 that rose and fell in the same decades as Kess
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.