Keilah
A feminine Hebrew name meaning "to gather" or "to collect".
Name Census estimates that about 1,534 living Americans carry the first name Keilah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keilah today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keilah births was 2005 (66 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keilah. 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 Keilah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 223,438 Americans
Peak year
2005
66 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,596
Tracked since 1976
Census
Keilah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,300 people with the first name Keilah, which placed it at #10,316 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
#10,316
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,300 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
32.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keilah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keilah is Hispanic at 32.8%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Black (27.3%). 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 Keilah 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 Keilah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino32.8% · 426
- White28.8% · 375
- Black or African American27.3% · 355
- Two or more races6.5% · 84
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 49
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 11
Popularity
Keilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keilah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 525 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keilah 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 Keilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keilahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Keilah, while North Carolina, New York, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 70 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keilah
The name Keilah is of Hebrew origin and can be traced back to ancient biblical times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "keylah" which means "fortress" or "stronghold". The name is mentioned in the Old Testament as a city in the Negev region of ancient Israel.
During the time of David, the city of Keilah was besieged by the Philistines. The biblical account in 1 Samuel 23 tells of how David and his men came to the aid of the inhabitants of Keilah and delivered them from the Philistine raiders. This is one of the earliest recorded instances of the name Keilah.
In the Middle Ages, the name Keilah was used sporadically among Jewish communities. One notable bearer of the name was Keilah bat Avraham, a 12th-century Jewish scholar and poet from Spain. She is recognized for her contributions to Hebrew literature and her skill in writing religious poetry.
Another historical figure with the name Keilah was Keilah ben Avraham, a 13th-century rabbi and Talmudic scholar from Germany. He is known for his commentary on the Mishnah, a fundamental work of Jewish oral law.
In the 16th century, there was Keilah ben Yitzchak, a Jewish physician and scholar from Italy. He wrote extensively on medical topics and was also well-versed in philosophy and theology.
A more recent figure with the name Keilah was Keilah Litman, a 19th-century American writer and activist. Born in 1849, she was involved in the women's suffrage movement and wrote several novels and short stories that explored themes of gender equality and social justice.
While the name Keilah has its roots in ancient Hebrew and biblical history, it has been used across different cultures and time periods. The name's meaning of "fortress" or "stronghold" has likely contributed to its enduring appeal and usage throughout the centuries.
People
Keilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keilah 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
Keilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,534 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keilah 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 223,438 US residents.
Is Keilah a common name?
We classify Keilah as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,568 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Keilah was 2005, when 66 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keilah is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keilah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,300 people with the name Keilah, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,316 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 Keilah 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 Keilah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keilah leans strongly female. 1,280 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 17 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Keilah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keilah is Hispanic at 32.8%. The next largest groups are White (28.8%) and Black (27.3%). 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 Keilah most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Keilah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.8% (426 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 Keilah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keilah 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 Keilah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keilah 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 Keilah 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 Keilah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.