Keighley
A feminine name derived from the town name Keighley in Yorkshire, England.
Name Census estimates that about 199 living Americans carry the first name Keighley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keighley today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keighley births was 2023 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keighley. 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 Keighley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
199
~ 1 in 1,722,384 Americans
Peak year
2023
20 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,654
Tracked since 1989
Census
Keighley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 181 people with the first name Keighley, which placed it at #40,888 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
#40,888
National first-name rank
People counted
181
181 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keighley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keighley is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.7%) and Black (6.6%). 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 Keighley 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 Keighley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.6% · 144
- Hispanic or Latino7.7% · 14
- Black or African American6.6% · 12
- Two or more races4.4% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 1
Popularity
Keighley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keighley from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 67 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Keighley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keighley 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 Keighley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keighley
The name Keighley originates from the Old English language and is derived from the words "ceg" meaning key and "leah" meaning meadow or clearing. It is believed to have originated in the 7th or 8th century AD in the area that is now known as West Yorkshire, England.
The name Keighley is closely associated with the town of Keighley, which is located in the Yorkshire Dales region of England. The town's name is thought to have been derived from the same Old English words as the personal name, and it is likely that the name Keighley was originally a place name before becoming a given name.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Keighley can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of land ownership in England that was commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. In the Domesday Book, the town of Keighley is mentioned as "Chichelai," which is believed to be an early spelling variation of the name.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who have borne the name Keighley. One of the most famous was Keighley Peregrine Truscott (1887-1951), a British army officer who served in both World War I and World War II. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor in the British armed forces, for his actions during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Another notable bearer of the name was Keighley Greengrass (1920-2003), a British actress who appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout her career. She was best known for her roles in the Carry On films of the 1960s and 1970s.
In the realm of literature, Keighley Snowden (1858-1923) was a British writer and journalist who published several novels and short stories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of his most famous works was the novel "The Web of Circumstance," which was published in 1901.
The name Keighley has also been associated with the world of sports. Keighley Pemberton (1894-1970) was a British tennis player who competed in the early 20th century. He participated in the Wimbledon Championships on several occasions and was known for his powerful serve.
Finally, in the field of music, Keighley Wilkinson (1932-2018) was a British composer and conductor who was known for his work in film and television scores. He composed the music for numerous popular British television shows, including "The Avengers" and "The Prisoner."
People
Keighley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keighley 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
Keighley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keighley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 199 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keighley 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 1,722,384 US residents.
Is Keighley a common name?
We classify Keighley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 203 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keighley most popular?
The single biggest year for Keighley was 2023, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keighley is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keighley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 181 people with the name Keighley, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,888 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 Keighley 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 Keighley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keighley leans strongly female. 178 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 8 male bearers (4.3%). 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 Keighley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keighley is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.7%) and Black (6.6%). 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 Keighley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keighley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.6% (144 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 Keighley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keighley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keighley 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 Keighley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keighley 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 Keighley 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 Americans are named Keighley?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.