Keily
Anglicized form of the Irish name Ceilidh meaning "visiting" or "celebrating".
Name Census estimates that about 5,116 living Americans carry the first name Keily. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keily today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keily births was 2018 (328 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keily. 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 Keily with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Keily is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.1K
~ 1 in 66,997 Americans
Peak year
2018
328 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2019 SSA rank
#979
Tracked since 1969
Census
Keily in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,233 people with the first name Keily, which placed it at #5,345 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
#5,345
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,233 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
86.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keily
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keily is Hispanic at 86.4%. The next largest groups are White (9.7%) and Black (2.4%). 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 Keily 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 Keily at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino86.4% · 2,794
- White9.7% · 313
- Black or African American2.4% · 76
- Two or more races0.8% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Keily
Out of the 5,166 babies given the name Keily since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Keily as a male name
- Ranked #13,162 in 2019
- 5 male births in 2019
- Peak: 2019 (5 births)
Keily as a female name
- Ranked #979 in 2024
- 265 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (328 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keily leans strongly female. 3,200 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 43 male bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Keily: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keily from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,361 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Keily remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keily 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 Keily during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keilys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Keily, while South Carolina, Oklahoma, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 146 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keily
The name Keily is believed to have originated from the Celtic language, with roots tracing back to ancient Britain and Ireland. It is thought to be a variant of the Irish name Caeli or Caelie, which means "slender" or "graceful."
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Keily can be found in the ancient Irish text, the Annals of the Four Masters, which dates back to the 17th century. In this historical record, a woman named Keily O'Donnell is mentioned as the wife of a prominent Irish chieftain.
Throughout the centuries, the name Keily has been borne by several notable individuals. In the 18th century, Keily O'Sullivan was an Irish poet and songwriter who gained recognition for her beautiful ballads and laments. Her works are still celebrated today in Irish folk music.
Another prominent figure with the name Keily was Keily Calvert, an English artist and illustrator from the 19th century. Born in 1822, she is renowned for her intricate illustrations of flora and fauna, which adorned many Victorian-era publications.
In the early 20th century, Keily Riordan was an Irish activist and suffragette who played a pivotal role in the fight for women's rights in Ireland. She was born in 1887 and dedicated her life to advocating for gender equality and social justice.
More recently, Keily Rivera was a Puerto Rican author and playwright who gained recognition for her poetic works and plays that explored themes of identity, culture, and social issues. She was born in 1937 and her literary contributions have left a lasting impact on Puerto Rican literature.
While the name Keily is not as common today as it once was, it carries a rich historical legacy and reflects the cultural heritage of the Celtic regions where it originated. Its enduring presence throughout the centuries is a testament to its unique and graceful charm.
People
Keily + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keily 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
Keily: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keily?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,116 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keily 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 66,997 US residents.
Is Keily a common name?
We classify Keily as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,166 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keily most popular?
The single biggest year for Keily was 2018, when 328 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keily is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keily in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,233 people with the name Keily, or 1.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,345 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 Keily 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 Keily?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keily leans strongly female. 3,200 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 43 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 Keily?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keily is Hispanic at 86.4%. The next largest groups are White (9.7%) and Black (2.4%). 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 Keily most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Keily in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.4% (2,794 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 Keily in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keily a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Keily 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 Keily still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keily 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 Keily 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 Keily as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.