Kelby
A variant of the name Kelby likely derived from an English surname.
Name Census estimates that about 5,369 living Americans carry the first name Kelby. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Kelby today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelby births was 1991 (277 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelby. 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 Kelby with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.4K
~ 1 in 63,840 Americans
Peak year
1991
277 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,305
Tracked since 1948
Census
Kelby in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,701 people with the first name Kelby, which placed it at #4,101 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
#4,101
National first-name rank
People counted
4.7K
4,701 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelby
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelby is White at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Hispanic (5.7%). 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 Kelby 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 Kelby at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.4% · 3,592
- Black or African American10.3% · 483
- Hispanic or Latino5.7% · 270
- Two or more races4.5% · 210
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 89
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 57
Gender
Gender distribution for Kelby
Kelby is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 5,550 total registrations, 4,001 (72.1%) were male and 1,549 (27.9%) were female.
Kelby as a male name
- Ranked #6,305 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (187 births)
Kelby as a female name
- Ranked #6,773 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (90 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kelby on both sides of the split. Of the 4,706 people counted with this name, 3,360 were male (71.4%) and 1,346 were female (28.6%).
Popularity
Kelby: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelby from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,979 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kelby 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 Kelby during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelbys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri recorded the most babies named Kelby, while Wyoming, South Dakota, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 53 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelby
The name Kelby is an English given name that originated in the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "ceol" meaning "ship" and "byrig" meaning "town" or "settlement". The combination of these two words suggests that the name was likely first used in coastal regions or settlements near bodies of water where ships would dock.
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled variations such as "Chelebi", "Keleby", and "Kelbie". These spellings can be found in ancient records and documents from the 12th and 13th centuries in parts of England and Scotland. The name was particularly common in the northern regions of both countries during this time period.
One of the earliest known mentions of the name Kelby can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Chelebi" in reference to a landowner or individual residing in what is now Yorkshire.
While the name does not appear to have any direct ties to religious texts or scriptures, it was not uncommon for individuals with this name to be found in monastic records and chronicles from medieval monasteries and abbeys throughout the British Isles.
Notable individuals named Kelby throughout history include:
1. Kelby of Repton (c. 1225 - c. 1290), an English monk and chronicler who documented events at Repton Abbey in Derbyshire.
2. Sir Kelby de Furnivall (c. 1300 - 1363), an English knight and landowner who served under King Edward III during the Hundred Years' War.
3. Kelby Smeaton (c. 1450 - 1510), a Scottish merchant and trader who established trade routes between Scotland and the Netherlands.
4. Kelby Stanhope (1555 - 1629), an English courtier and diplomat who served under Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
5. Kelby Aitkens (1679 - 1744), a Scottish philosopher and academic who taught at the University of Edinburgh and was influential in the Scottish Enlightenment.
While the name Kelby fell out of more widespread use in the modern era, it has persisted as a traditional English given name, particularly in parts of the United Kingdom and among families with historical ties to the regions where it originated.
People
Kelby + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelby 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
Kelby: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelby?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,369 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelby 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 63,840 US residents.
Is Kelby a common name?
We classify Kelby as "Rare". It ranks above 96.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,550 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelby most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelby was 1991, when 277 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelby is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kelby in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,701 people with the name Kelby, or 1.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,101 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 Kelby 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 Kelby?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kelby on both sides of the split. Of the 4,706 people counted with this name, 3,360 were male (71.4%) and 1,346 were female (28.6%). 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 Kelby?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelby is White at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Hispanic (5.7%). 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 Kelby most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelby in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.4% (3,592 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 Kelby in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelby a male name?
Yes, 72.1% of people registered as Kelby 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 Kelby still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelby 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 Kelby 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 Kelby?
See how many Americans are named Kelby on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.