Key
Key was last recorded in 2024, when 7 babies were given it; 176 Americans have been recorded with it between 1914 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Key by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Key?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #10,435, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
12 babies in 1993, the peak
Key peaked in 1993, when 12 boys were given it, #4,867 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 7 | #10,435 | 4.1 |
| 2023 | 8 | #9,374 | 4.7 |
| 2017 | 5 | #13,324 | 2.7 |
| 2014 | 5 | #13,127 | 2.6 |
| 2012 | 5 | #13,303 | 2.6 |
| 2007 | 5 | #13,470 | 2.4 |
| 2004 | 6 | #10,711 | 3.0 |
| 2003 | 6 | #10,275 | 3.0 |
| 1999 | 7 | #8,318 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 7 | #8,048 | 3.7 |
Every recorded year (27)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 8 | #6,967 | 4.2 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,580 | 3.7 |
| 1995 | 5 | #9,636 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,867 | 6.1 |
| 1990 | 6 | #7,655 | 2.9 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,462 | 3.0 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,590 | 2.7 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,862 | 2.8 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,449 | 3.7 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,507 | 3.7 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,298 | 4.5 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,852 | 2.8 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,862 | 2.8 |
| 1951 | 5 | #3,994 | 2.7 |
| 1948 | 5 | #3,948 | 2.8 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,290 | 5.4 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,517 | 7.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Key a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 176 Americans recorded as Key, 6% are girls and 94% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Key: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Key, and how old are they?
An estimated 153 Americans named Key and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (87% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 22 and 42. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 850 people named Key (349 women and girls, 501 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 142 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.0 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Key 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 spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 2,734 babies since 1880, Key is the fourth most given (6.4% of them). In 2025 none of their 29 babies recorded by SSA was a Key (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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.
More about Key and names like it
- Compare Key and KeeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKey peaked in 1993.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Key.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Key alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.