Ky
Ky was given to 31 boys in 2025, #3,622 among boys’ names; 1,659 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,590 Americans named Ky and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 13 and 39.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ky by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ky mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ky is “a short form of the female given names Kylie, Kylee, or Kyleigh, used as a nickname and/or as a form that is not overtly feminine.”
Clipping of Kylie, Kylee, or Kyleigh.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ky?
#3,622 among boys’ names, 2025
Ky rose from #4,239 in 2015 to #3,622 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 12.5 to 18.1 per million.
48 babies in 1990, the peak
Ky peaked in 1990, when 48 babies were given it (41 boys, #1,889 among boys’ names). The 31 births of 2025 are 65% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 31 | #3,622 | 18.1 |
| 2024 | 25 | #4,272 | 14.5 |
| 2023 | 35 | #3,384 | 20.5 |
| 2022 | 33 | #3,502 | 18.9 |
| 2021 | 30 | #3,698 | 17.1 |
| 2020 | 25 | #4,089 | 14.5 |
| 2019 | 19 | #5,065 | 10.6 |
| 2018 | 33 | #3,417 | 18.2 |
| 2017 | 40 | #2,981 | 21.6 |
| 2016 | 24 | #4,264 | 12.6 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 24 | #4,239 | 12.5 |
| 2014 | 29 | #3,659 | 15.1 |
| 2013 | 28 | #3,711 | 14.8 |
| 2012 | 25 | #4,079 | 13.2 |
| 2011 | 29 | #3,660 | 15.3 |
| 2010 | 19 | #4,950 | 9.9 |
| 2009 | 22 | #4,519 | 11.1 |
| 2008 | 18 | #5,173 | 8.8 |
| 2007 | 27 | #3,851 | 13.0 |
| 2006 | 18 | #4,967 | 8.8 |
| 2005 | 32 | #3,202 | 16.0 |
| 2004 | 24 | #3,809 | 12.1 |
| 2003 | 34 | #2,891 | 17.2 |
| 2002 | 32 | #2,914 | 16.5 |
| 2001 | 35 | #2,714 | 18.0 |
| 2000 | 27 | #3,184 | 13.7 |
| 1999 | 29 | #2,903 | 15.1 |
| 1998 | 26 | #3,058 | 13.6 |
| 1997 | 24 | #3,111 | 12.7 |
| 1996 | 28 | #2,714 | 14.8 |
| 1995 | 21 | #3,257 | 11.0 |
| 1994 | 34 | #2,326 | 17.6 |
| 1993 | 30 | #2,481 | 15.3 |
| 1992 | 42 | #1,940 | 21.0 |
| 1991 | 23 | #2,874 | 11.4 |
| 1990 | 41 | #1,889 | 20.0 |
| 1989 | 31 | #2,222 | 15.5 |
| 1988 | 29 | #2,168 | 15.1 |
| 1987 | 37 | #1,773 | 19.8 |
| 1986 | 27 | #2,135 | 14.7 |
| 1985 | 22 | #2,396 | 11.9 |
| 1984 | 18 | #2,658 | 10.0 |
| 1983 | 24 | #2,176 | 13.4 |
| 1982 | 25 | #2,140 | 13.8 |
| 1981 | 15 | #2,969 | 8.4 |
| 1980 | 16 | #2,904 | 9.0 |
| 1979 | 13 | #3,268 | 7.6 |
| 1978 | 14 | #3,002 | 8.5 |
| 1977 | 14 | #2,986 | 8.5 |
| 1976 | 14 | #2,897 | 8.9 |
| 1975 | 18 | #2,406 | 11.5 |
| 1974 | 15 | #2,616 | 9.5 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,905 | 5.1 |
| 1972 | 17 | #2,292 | 10.5 |
| 1971 | 20 | #2,088 | 11.3 |
| 1970 | 17 | #2,252 | 9.1 |
| 1969 | 11 | #2,783 | 6.2 |
| 1968 | 7 | #3,531 | 4.0 |
| 1967 | 15 | #2,088 | 8.6 |
| 1965 | 9 | #2,896 | 4.8 |
| 1964 | 9 | #2,971 | 4.5 |
| 1962 | 7 | #3,486 | 3.4 |
| 1961 | 7 | #3,526 | 3.3 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,250 | 2.4 |
| 1957 | 10 | #2,742 | 4.6 |
| 1955 | 5 | #4,149 | 2.4 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,024 | 2.6 |
| 1950 | 5 | #3,957 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ky a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,659 Americans recorded as Ky, 9% are girls and 91% boys. In 2025 it went to 31 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ky: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ky, and how old are they?
1,590 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 1,659 Americans ever recorded as Ky. The median Ky alive today is 27 years old; half are between 13 and 39.
The 2020 Census counted 3,972 people named Ky (1,045 women and girls, 2,927 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,422 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.8 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 38 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 206 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 465 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 456 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 420 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 13,127 babies since 1880, Ky is the third most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 31 of their 339 babies (9.1%), 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 Ky
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 Ky and names like it
- Compare Ky and KyeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKy peaked in 1990.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ky since 1910.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Ky.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Ky alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.