Keir
Boy's name of Celtic origin, possibly meaning "power", "dark-haired", or "black".
Name Census estimates that about 1,052 living Americans carry the first name Keir. It is a predominantly male name (94.2% of registrations). The average person named Keir today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keir births was 1970 (74 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keir. 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 Keir with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 325,812 Americans
Peak year
1970
74 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,633
Tracked since 1963
Census
Keir in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,014 people with the first name Keir, which placed it at #12,310 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
#12,310
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,014 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keir
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keir is White at 51.2%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Keir 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 Keir at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.2% · 519
- Black or African American34.6% · 351
- Two or more races7.6% · 77
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 51
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Keir
Keir leans heavily male at 94.2% of total registrations, but 64 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Keir as a male name
- Ranked #6,633 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (63 births)
Keir as a female name
- Ranked #14,518 in 1994
- 5 female births in 1994
- Peak: 1970 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keir leans strongly male. 872 people counted with this name were male (86.3%), compared with 138 female bearers (13.7%).
Popularity
Keir: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keir 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 321 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
Keir 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 Keir during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keirs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. New York, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Keir, while Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keir
The given name Keir has its origins in medieval Scotland. It is derived from an Old Norse word "kier," which means "marsh" or "boggy meadow." The name's earliest recorded use dates back to the 13th century in Scotland.
In ancient Scottish clan histories, the name Keir is associated with the Clan Keith, a prominent family that held lands in East Lothian and Kincardineshire. The Keiths were known for their involvement in significant historical events, including the Wars of Scottish Independence against England in the 13th and 14th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Keir was Sir Robert de Keir, a Scottish knight who fought alongside William Wallace and Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
Another notable figure with the name Keir was George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal (1693-1778), a Scottish nobleman and Jacobite supporter who played a significant role in the Jacobite Risings of the early 18th century.
In literature, the name Keir appears in the works of Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, who mentioned characters with this name in his historical novels, such as "The Talisman" and "The Fortunes of Nigel."
Other notable individuals with the name Keir include:
1. Keir Hardie (1856-1915), a Scottish politician and founder of the British Labour Party.
2. Keir Dullea (born 1936), an American actor known for his role in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey."
3. Keir Gilchrist (born 1992), a British-Canadian actor known for his roles in the films "It's Kind of a Funny Story" and the TV series "Atypical."
4. Keir Starmer (born 1962), a British politician and the current Leader of the Labour Party.
5. Keir Noughton (born 1986), a Canadian musician and singer-songwriter.
While the name Keir has Scottish origins and historical connections, it has gained popularity worldwide, particularly in English-speaking countries, and has been adopted by individuals from various cultural backgrounds.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Keir
People
Keir + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keir 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
Keir: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keir?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,052 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keir 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 325,812 US residents.
Is Keir a common name?
We classify Keir as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,110 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keir most popular?
The single biggest year for Keir was 1970, when 74 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keir is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keir in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,014 people with the name Keir, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,310 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 Keir 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 Keir?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keir leans strongly male. 872 people counted with this name were male (86.3%), compared with 138 female bearers (13.7%). 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 Keir?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keir is White at 51.2%. The next largest groups are Black (34.6%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Keir most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keir in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.2% (519 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 Keir in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keir a male name?
Yes, 94.2% of people registered as Keir in the SSA data are male. 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 Keir still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keir 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 Keir 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 share the name Keir?
Want to know how many people share the name Keir? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.