Kory
Kory is given to both girls and boys: 10 girls and 35 boys were given it in 2025 (#9,797 among girls’ names and #3,351 among boys’, #6,055 among all names counting both); 15,723 Americans have been recorded with it since 1952 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 14,800 Americans named Kory and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 29 and 46.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kory by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kory mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kory is “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
20th-century US variant of Cory.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kory?
#3,351 among boys’ names, 2025
Kory fell from #1,812 in 2015 to #3,351 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 43.3 to 20.5 per million.
651 babies in 1989, the peak
Kory peaked in 1989, when 651 babies were given it (601 boys, #373 among boys’ names). The 45 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 7% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 35 | #3,351 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 42 | #2,984 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 48 | #2,718 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 63 | #2,284 | 0.04 |
| 2021 | 46 | #2,757 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 52 | #2,489 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 58 | #2,351 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 50 | #2,562 | 0.03 |
| 2017 | 65 | #2,118 | 0.04 |
| 2016 | 72 | #2,002 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (74)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 83 | #1,812 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 75 | #1,933 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 75 | #1,890 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 72 | #1,974 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 86 | #1,725 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 80 | #1,823 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 96 | #1,647 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 119 | #1,420 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 125 | #1,347 | 0.06 |
| 2006 | 139 | #1,211 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 155 | #1,070 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 143 | #1,108 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 169 | #963 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 162 | #974 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 207 | #810 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 234 | #732 | 0.12 |
| 1999 | 245 | #687 | 0.13 |
| 1998 | 295 | #623 | 0.15 |
| 1997 | 311 | #585 | 0.16 |
| 1996 | 331 | #558 | 0.17 |
| 1995 | 365 | #529 | 0.19 |
| 1994 | 403 | #504 | 0.21 |
| 1993 | 435 | #483 | 0.22 |
| 1992 | 459 | #471 | 0.23 |
| 1991 | 565 | #403 | 0.28 |
| 1990 | 598 | #388 | 0.29 |
| 1989 | 601 | #373 | 0.30 |
| 1988 | 568 | #360 | 0.30 |
| 1987 | 518 | #371 | 0.28 |
| 1986 | 457 | #396 | 0.25 |
| 1985 | 410 | #425 | 0.22 |
| 1984 | 337 | #458 | 0.19 |
| 1983 | 314 | #472 | 0.18 |
| 1982 | 317 | #475 | 0.17 |
| 1981 | 320 | #465 | 0.18 |
| 1980 | 317 | #471 | 0.18 |
| 1979 | 300 | #475 | 0.17 |
| 1978 | 303 | #462 | 0.18 |
| 1977 | 335 | #434 | 0.20 |
| 1976 | 275 | #479 | 0.18 |
| 1975 | 254 | #502 | 0.16 |
| 1974 | 226 | #530 | 0.14 |
| 1973 | 203 | #557 | 0.13 |
| 1972 | 206 | #557 | 0.13 |
| 1971 | 207 | #564 | 0.12 |
| 1970 | 221 | #546 | 0.12 |
| 1969 | 208 | #543 | 0.12 |
| 1968 | 120 | #691 | 0.07 |
| 1967 | 88 | #779 | 0.05 |
| 1966 | 77 | #833 | 0.04 |
| 1965 | 105 | #729 | 0.06 |
| 1964 | 73 | #892 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 80 | #849 | 0.04 |
| 1962 | 77 | #866 | 0.04 |
| 1961 | 64 | #961 | 0.03 |
| 1960 | 61 | #975 | 0.03 |
| 1959 | 46 | #1,146 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 44 | #1,165 | 0.02 |
| 1957 | 36 | #1,308 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 23 | #1,665 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 15 | #2,097 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 9 | #2,857 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,275 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,020 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kory a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 15,723 Americans recorded as Kory, 9% are girls and 91% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kory: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kory, and how old are they?
14,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 15,723 Americans ever recorded as Kory. The median Kory alive today is 37 years old; half are between 29 and 46.
The 2020 Census counted 13,277 people named Kory (1,207 women and girls, 12,070 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 14,700 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 472 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 3,440 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 7,160 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,780 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 915 |
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 Kory born?
The states with the most babies named Kory are California, Texas and Ohio, with 28% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,580 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Texas | 898 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 649 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 600 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 578 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New York | 546 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Wisconsin | 519 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Minnesota | 462 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Florida | 460 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 458 | not ranked | 0.6× |
Where Kory is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kory is most over-represented in Iowa: since 1952 it was given 2.2 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 boys’ 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 Kory 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 359,828 babies since 1880, Kory is the third most given (4.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 45 of their 629 babies (7.2%), the fourth most given that year.
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 Kory
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 Kory and names like it
- Compare Kory and CoreyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sKory peaked in 1989.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kory since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kory: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1989The year the most babies were named Kory.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kory alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.