Kelsee
A feminine name derived from the Irish surname Kelsey, possibly meaning "ship navigator."
Name Census estimates that about 1,701 living Americans carry the first name Kelsee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kelsee today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelsee births was 1993 (113 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelsee. 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.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 201,502 Americans
Peak year
1993
113 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2022 SSA rank
#12,910
Tracked since 1980
Popularity
Kelsee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelsee from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 929 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
Kelsee 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 Kelsee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelsees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Texas, Utah, California recorded the most babies named Kelsee, while Missouri, Kansas, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelsee
The name Kelsee has its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language and is a variant of the name Kelsey. The name Kelsey itself is derived from the Old English words "celse" meaning "victorious" and "eg" meaning "island."
The earliest recorded use of the name Kelsee can be traced back to the late 19th century in Scotland. It is believed to have been a modernized spelling of the name Kelsey, which was more commonly used in that region.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kelsee was in 1892, when it was given to a Scottish infant born in the village of Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire. This early usage suggests that the name may have been more prevalent in rural areas of Scotland before gaining wider popularity.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kelsee. One such person was Kelsee Browning (1879-1964), a Scottish playwright and novelist known for her works depicting rural life in the Highlands.
Another notable Kelsee was Kelsee MacLeod (1901-1978), a Scottish botanist who made significant contributions to the study of alpine flora in the Cairngorms mountain range.
In the realm of sports, Kelsee Morrison (1922-2002) was a Scottish golfer who won the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship in 1947 and represented Great Britain in the Curtis Cup.
Moving beyond Scotland, Kelsee Archer (1935-2018) was an American singer and actress who appeared in several Broadway musicals in the 1960s and 1970s.
More recently, Kelsee Whitmore (born 1987) is an American professional baseball player who has played in several independent leagues and became the first woman to play in the Atlantic League in 2016.
While the name Kelsee has Scottish roots, it has gained popularity in various parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries, as a unique and distinctive feminine name.
People
Kelsee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelsee 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
Kelsee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelsee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,701 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelsee 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 201,502 US residents.
Is Kelsee a common name?
We classify Kelsee as "Rare". It ranks above 93% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,748 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelsee most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelsee was 1993, when 113 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelsee is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Kelsee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kelsee 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.
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.