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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kelsee with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Kelsee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,495 people with the first name Kelsee, which placed it at #9,334 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
#9,334
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,495 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelsee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsee is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Kelsee 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 Kelsee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.5% · 1,203
- Black or African American8.0% · 120
- Two or more races5.4% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 69
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 11
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.
How common was Kelsee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,495 people with the name Kelsee, or 0.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,334 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 Kelsee 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 Kelsee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelsee appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,498 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Kelsee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsee is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Kelsee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelsee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.5% (1,203 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 Kelsee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Kelsee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelsee 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 Kelsee 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 Kelsee?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Kelsee at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.