Keesha
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a diminutive form of Keisha.
Name Census estimates that about 2,504 living Americans carry the first name Keesha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keesha today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keesha births was 1977 (164 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keesha. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Keesha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 136,883 Americans
Peak year
1977
164 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2021 SSA rank
#11,642
Tracked since 1964
Census
Keesha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,349 people with the first name Keesha, which placed it at #6,732 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,732
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,349 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keesha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keesha is Black at 58.7%. The next largest groups are White (26.8%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Keesha described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Keesha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.7% · 1,379
- White26.8% · 630
- Two or more races5.6% · 132
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 117
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 47
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 44
Popularity
Keesha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keesha from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 1,269 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keesha by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Keesha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keeshas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. New York, Illinois, Texas recorded the most babies named Keesha, while Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 46 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keesha
The name Keesha is believed to have its origins in the African American community, where it emerged as a variation of the more traditional name Keisha. The precise etymology is unclear, but it is thought to be derived from a combination of the Irish name Keisha and the English name Kisha.
One theory suggests that Keesha may have evolved from the name Keziah, a biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning "cassia tree" or "cinnamon." This name was relatively common among African American families in the 19th century and may have influenced the development of Keesha as a distinct variant.
The earliest recorded use of the name Keesha dates back to the late 20th century, with a notable increase in popularity in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. This coincided with a broader trend of creating unique and creative names within the African American community.
While Keesha is not a name found in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been borne by several notable figures throughout history. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Keesha Sharp, an American actress born in 1973, known for her roles in popular television shows such as Girlfriends and Lethal Weapon.
Another prominent figure named Keesha was Keesha Prioleau, a professional basketball player who played in the WNBA for several teams, including the Houston Comets and the Detroit Shock, during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In the music industry, Keesha is the name of a British singer and songwriter born in 1987, known for her collaborations with various artists in the UK grime and R&B scenes.
Outside of entertainment, Keesha Gaskins-Nathan is a notable American lawyer and legal scholar who served as the Director of the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Social Change at the State University of New York at Albany in the early 2000s.
Lastly, Keesha Lewis was a prominent figure in the field of education, serving as the Executive Director of the Uncommon Schools network of public charter schools in Newark, New Jersey, from 2011 to 2018.
While the name Keesha may have relatively recent origins, it has gained widespread recognition and has been borne by individuals across various fields, reflecting its growing popularity and cultural significance within the African American community.
People
Keesha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keesha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Keesha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keesha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,504 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keesha going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 136,883 US residents.
Is Keesha a common name?
We classify Keesha as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,708 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keesha most popular?
The single biggest year for Keesha was 1977, when 164 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keesha is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keesha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,349 people with the name Keesha, or 0.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,732 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Keesha in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Keesha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keesha appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,348 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Keesha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keesha is Black at 58.7%. The next largest groups are White (26.8%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Keesha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Keesha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.7% (1,379 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Keesha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keesha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keesha in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Keesha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keesha in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Keesha can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Keesha as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Keesha, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.