Kimberly
Kimberly was given to 1,009 girls in 2025, #303 among girls’ names; 850,666 Americans have been recorded with it since 1933 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 788,000 Americans named Kimberly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 52 years old and half are between 40 and 59.
Kimberly is the #14 most common first name among living American women and girls, by this estimate.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kimberly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kimberly mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kimberly is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname, popular in the 1960s and the 1970s.”
Variant spelling of Kimberley.
[ˈkʰɪmbɚli]
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kimberly?
#303 among girls’ names, 2025
Kimberly fell from #108 in 2015 to #303 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 1.6 to 0.63 per 1,000.
34,243 babies in 1970, the peak
Kimberly peaked in 1970, when 34,243 babies were given it (34,130 girls, #3 among girls’ names). The 1,009 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,009 | #303 | 0.63 |
| 2024 | 1,286 | #247 | 0.79 |
| 2023 | 1,338 | #222 | 0.83 |
| 2022 | 1,392 | #211 | 0.85 |
| 2021 | 1,351 | #221 | 0.82 |
| 2020 | 1,560 | #186 | 1.0 |
| 2019 | 1,537 | #196 | 0.92 |
| 2018 | 1,705 | #173 | 1.0 |
| 2017 | 1,840 | #164 | 1.1 |
| 2016 | 2,332 | #133 | 1.3 |
Every recorded year (93)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,843 | #108 | 1.6 |
| 2014 | 2,902 | #107 | 1.6 |
| 2013 | 3,105 | #101 | 1.8 |
| 2012 | 3,317 | #88 | 1.9 |
| 2011 | 3,812 | #67 | 2.2 |
| 2010 | 3,871 | #69 | 2.2 |
| 2009 | 4,228 | #66 | 2.3 |
| 2008 | 4,814 | #57 | 2.5 |
| 2007 | 5,103 | #54 | 2.7 |
| 2006 | 5,011 | #58 | 2.6 |
| 2005 | 4,752 | #63 | 2.6 |
| 2004 | 4,847 | #61 | 2.6 |
| 2003 | 4,825 | #64 | 2.6 |
| 2002 | 4,790 | #63 | 2.7 |
| 2001 | 4,880 | #61 | 2.7 |
| 2000 | 5,244 | #58 | 2.9 |
| 1999 | 5,457 | #51 | 3.1 |
| 1998 | 5,722 | #54 | 3.2 |
| 1997 | 6,182 | #49 | 3.6 |
| 1996 | 7,176 | #41 | 4.1 |
| 1995 | 7,745 | #37 | 4.4 |
| 1994 | 8,747 | #32 | 4.9 |
| 1993 | 7,965 | #39 | 4.4 |
| 1992 | 8,895 | #35 | 4.8 |
| 1991 | 9,799 | #34 | 5.2 |
| 1990 | 10,191 | #31 | 5.4 |
| 1989 | 11,037 | #28 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 11,948 | #25 | 6.7 |
| 1987 | 13,031 | #23 | 7.5 |
| 1986 | 14,420 | #18 | 8.4 |
| 1985 | 14,914 | #19 | 8.7 |
| 1984 | 14,445 | #22 | 8.6 |
| 1983 | 15,370 | #15 | 9.2 |
| 1982 | 16,101 | #14 | 9.5 |
| 1981 | 16,689 | #13 | 10.0 |
| 1980 | 18,497 | #11 | 11.1 |
| 1979 | 17,635 | #12 | 11.0 |
| 1978 | 16,879 | #13 | 11.0 |
| 1977 | 18,286 | #8 | 11.9 |
| 1976 | 18,962 | #7 | 12.9 |
| 1975 | 20,257 | #7 | 13.9 |
| 1974 | 22,427 | #6 | 15.3 |
| 1973 | 23,531 | #4 | 16.1 |
| 1972 | 26,282 | #4 | 17.3 |
| 1971 | 30,708 | #4 | 18.5 |
| 1970 | 34,130 | #3 | 19.5 |
| 1969 | 33,077 | #4 | 19.6 |
| 1968 | 31,906 | #3 | 19.5 |
| 1967 | 33,097 | #2 | 20.0 |
| 1966 | 32,232 | #2 | 19.0 |
| 1965 | 28,836 | #4 | 16.3 |
| 1964 | 24,128 | #6 | 12.7 |
| 1963 | 21,224 | #11 | 11.0 |
| 1962 | 20,363 | #16 | 10.4 |
| 1961 | 17,355 | #22 | 8.6 |
| 1960 | 16,854 | #26 | 8.3 |
| 1959 | 12,790 | #33 | 6.3 |
| 1958 | 10,710 | #39 | 5.3 |
| 1957 | 9,454 | #42 | 4.6 |
| 1956 | 6,730 | #74 | 3.4 |
| 1955 | 3,862 | #111 | 2.0 |
| 1954 | 2,087 | #168 | 1.1 |
| 1953 | 1,428 | #209 | 0.76 |
| 1952 | 966 | #254 | 0.52 |
| 1951 | 486 | #365 | 0.27 |
| 1950 | 445 | #381 | 0.26 |
| 1949 | 362 | #414 | 0.21 |
| 1948 | 315 | #450 | 0.19 |
| 1947 | 255 | #522 | 0.14 |
| 1946 | 130 | #709 | 0.08 |
| 1945 | 26 | #1,633 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 21 | #1,887 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 18 | #2,112 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 25 | #1,684 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 24 | #1,631 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 13 | #2,362 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 11 | #2,667 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 10 | #2,829 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #4,040 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 5 | #4,538 | under 0.01 |
| 1935 | 7 | #3,588 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 6 | #4,063 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 7 | #3,593 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kimberly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kimberly has been given almost only to girls: 4,273 boys in 93 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kimberly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kimberly, and how old are they?
788,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 850,666 Americans ever recorded as Kimberly. The median Kimberly alive today is 52 years old; half are between 40 and 59.
The 2020 Census counted 696,165 people named Kimberly (694,683 women and girls, 1,482 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 798,634 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 83 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 128,000 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 377,000 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 184,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 76,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 24,100 |
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 Kimberly born?
The states with the most babies named Kimberly are California, Texas and New York, with 24% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 95,944 | #227 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 61,287 | #185 | 1.0× |
| New York | 48,956 | #326 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 46,912 | #630 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 44,955 | #318 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 43,070 | #409 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 38,049 | #761 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 31,278 | #190 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 26,381 | #447 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 24,826 | #393 | 1.1× |
Where Kimberly is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kimberly is most over-represented in West Virginia: since 1933 it was given 1.2 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 Kimberly 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 920,819 babies since 1880, Kimberly is the most given (92% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,009 of their 1,074 babies (94%), 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 Kimberly
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 Kimberly and names like it
- Compare Kimberly and KimberleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKimberly peaked in 1970.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kimberly since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kimberly: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1970The year the most babies were named Kimberly.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Kimberly alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.