Kelle
An English feminine name derived from Cornish roots meaning "woods".
Name Census estimates that about 2,032 living Americans carry the first name Kelle. It is a predominantly female name (98.2% of registrations). The average person named Kelle today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelle births was 1962 (100 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelle. 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 Kelle with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 168,678 Americans
Peak year
1962
100 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
1992 SSA rank
#9,152
Tracked since 1950
Census
Kelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,318 people with the first name Kelle, which placed it at #6,799 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
#6,799
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,318 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelle is White at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Black (7.6%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Kelle 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 Kelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.2% · 1,974
- Black or African American7.6% · 176
- Two or more races3.4% · 78
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 53
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Kelle
Kelle leans heavily female at 98.2% of total registrations, but 43 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kelle as a male name
- Ranked #9,152 in 1992
- 5 male births in 1992
- Peak: 1964 (6 births)
Kelle as a female name
- Ranked #17,075 in 2003
- 5 female births in 2003
- Peak: 1962 (100 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelle leans strongly female. 2,197 people counted with this name were female (94.7%), compared with 123 male bearers (5.3%).
Popularity
Kelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelle from the 1950s through to the 2000s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 916 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kelle 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 Kelle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. California, Texas, Michigan recorded the most babies named Kelle, while Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 39 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelle
The name Kelle is a German variant of the feminine name Kella, which is believed to have its origins in the Old High German word "kella" or "chella," meaning "cellar" or "cave." This connection suggests that the name may have been initially associated with individuals who lived in or worked in cellars or caves.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kelle can be found in the 12th century, when it was mentioned in the Codex Traditionum Monasterii Sancti Petri Salisburgensis, a medieval manuscript containing records of the Archbishopric of Salzburg. This document provides evidence that the name was in use during the High Middle Ages in the region of present-day Austria and southern Germany.
In the 16th century, the name Kelle gained prominence through the life of Kelle Weyse, a German Benedictine nun and abbess who lived from 1529 to 1599. She served as the abbess of the Monastery of St. John in Münsterschwarzach, Bavaria, and was known for her piety and leadership.
Another notable figure with the name Kelle was Kelle von Luder, a German noblewoman and landowner who lived in the 14th century. She was born in 1320 and owned extensive properties in the region of Hesse, which she bequeathed to the Teutonic Order upon her death in 1386.
In the realm of literature, the name Kelle appears in the works of the German writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In his novel "Die Leiden des jungen Werther" (The Sorrows of Young Werther), published in 1774, one of the characters is named Kelle Lenette.
Kelle Stine was a Danish writer and translator who lived from 1842 to 1915. She is known for her translations of works by renowned authors such as Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen, as well as for her own literary contributions, including the novel "Inger Johanne" published in 1889.
While the name Kelle has its roots in German-speaking regions, it has also been used in other parts of the world, although with less frequency. It is important to note that this report focuses solely on the first name Kelle and does not cover its usage as a surname or last name.
People
Kelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelle 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
Kelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,032 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelle 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 168,678 US residents.
Is Kelle a common name?
We classify Kelle as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,345 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelle was 1962, when 100 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelle is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,318 people with the name Kelle, or 0.77 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,799 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 Kelle 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 Kelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelle leans strongly female. 2,197 people counted with this name were female (94.7%), compared with 123 male bearers (5.3%). 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 Kelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelle is White at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Black (7.6%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Kelle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.2% (1,974 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 Kelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelle a female name?
Yes, 98.2% of people registered as Kelle 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 Kelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelle 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 Kelle 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 Kelle?
Want to know how many people share the name Kelle? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.