Keller
From German origins, it means someone who is a cellar maker.
Name Census estimates that about 3,898 living Americans carry the first name Keller. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Keller today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keller births was 2014 (200 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keller. 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 Keller with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Keller is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.9K
~ 1 in 87,931 Americans
Peak year
2014
200 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,621
Tracked since 1911
Census
Keller in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,495 people with the first name Keller, which placed it at #5,041 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
#5,041
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,495 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keller
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keller is White at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.9%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Keller 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 Keller at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.2% · 2,976
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 207
- Two or more races4.2% · 146
- Black or African American3.1% · 107
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 42
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Keller
Keller leans heavily male at 88.9% of total registrations, but 454 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Keller as a male name
- Ranked #1,621 in 2024
- 105 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (171 births)
Keller as a female name
- Ranked #5,864 in 2024
- 21 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (29 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keller leans strongly male. 3,041 people counted with this name were male (86.9%), compared with 458 female bearers (13.1%).
Popularity
Keller: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keller from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,589 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Keller remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keller 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 Keller during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kellers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Keller, while Utah, New Jersey, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keller
The name Keller finds its origins in the German language, where it was originally an occupational surname derived from the German word "Keller," meaning "cellar" or "vault." The name likely emerged during the Middle Ages, when it was used to identify individuals whose profession involved working in or maintaining cellars.
In its earliest recorded usage, the name Keller appeared in various German and Swiss historical documents from the 13th century onwards. It was often associated with individuals who worked as cellarers, wine merchants, or those responsible for storing and managing goods in cellars or underground vaults.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Keller was Johannes Keller, a Swiss monk and chronicler who lived in the 15th century. He is best known for his work, "Chronik der Abtei St. Gallen," which provided valuable insights into the history of the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland.
During the Renaissance period, the name Keller gained further prominence with individuals such as Christoph Keller, a German mathematician and astronomer born in 1637. He made significant contributions to the field of astronomy and is particularly known for his work on the theory of planetary motion.
In the 19th century, Helen Keller (1880-1968), an American author and disability rights advocate, became one of the most famous individuals to bear the name Keller. Despite being born deaf and blind, she overcame numerous challenges and became a prominent figure in the fight for the rights of people with disabilities.
Another notable individual with the name Keller was Hans Keller (1919-1985), an Austrian-born British music critic and writer. He was highly influential in the field of music criticism and is remembered for his insightful analyses of various composers and their works.
The name Keller has also been associated with several other historical figures, including Arthur Keller (1867-1924), a German-American landscape painter known for his works depicting the American West, and Otto Keller (1838-1915), a Swiss engineer and pioneer in the field of railway construction.
While the name Keller originated as an occupational surname, it has since transcended its initial meaning and has been adopted as a given name in various cultures and regions around the world. Its historical significance lies in its connection to professions involving cellars and vaults, as well as the notable individuals who have carried this name throughout history.
People
Keller + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keller 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
Keller: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keller?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,898 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keller 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 87,931 US residents.
Is Keller a common name?
We classify Keller as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,077 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keller most popular?
The single biggest year for Keller was 2014, when 200 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keller is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keller in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,495 people with the name Keller, or 1.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,041 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 Keller 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 Keller?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keller leans strongly male. 3,041 people counted with this name were male (86.9%), compared with 458 female bearers (13.1%). 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 Keller?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keller is White at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.9%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Keller most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keller in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.2% (2,976 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 Keller in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keller a male name?
Yes, 88.9% of people registered as Keller 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 Keller still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keller 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 Keller 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 common is the name Keller?
See how many people have the name Keller on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.