Kelsie
A feminine name of Scottish origin, a variant of Kelsey, meaning "ship's navigator".
Name Census estimates that about 19,034 living Americans carry the first name Kelsie. It is a predominantly female name (98.3% of registrations). The average person named Kelsie today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelsie births was 1993 (1,228 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelsie. 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 Kelsie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kelsie started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Although Kelsie is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 345 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
19K
~ 1 in 18,007 Americans
Peak year
1993
1,228 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2000 SSA rank
#2,312
Tracked since 1908
Census
Kelsie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,217 people with the first name Kelsie, which placed it at #1,754 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
#1,754
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,217 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelsie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsie is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.7%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Kelsie 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 Kelsie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.5% · 14,036
- Black or African American6.7% · 1,151
- Hispanic or Latino5.3% · 907
- Two or more races4.0% · 694
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 288
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 141
Gender
Gender distribution for Kelsie
Kelsie leans heavily female at 98.3% of total registrations, but 345 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kelsie as a male name
- Ranked #11,342 in 2000
- 5 male births in 2000
- Peak: 1922 (13 births)
Kelsie as a female name
- Ranked #2,312 in 2024
- 80 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (1,222 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelsie leans strongly female. 16,973 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 244 male bearers (1.4%).
Popularity
Kelsie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelsie from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 9,766 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
Kelsie 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 Kelsie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelsies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kelsie, while Rhode Island, Delaware, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 355 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelsie
The name Kelsie is a modern variant of the Scottish name Kelsey, which itself is derived from the Old English words "ceol" meaning ship and "ey" meaning island. This suggests that the name originated in coastal regions of Scotland where seafaring was a way of life.
The earliest recorded spelling of the name was Kelsey, which dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 AD, a survey of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. In these early records, the name referred to a location in Lincolnshire, England called "Cauenay" which later became known as Kelsey.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Kelsey Bardolf, an English noblewoman who lived in the 12th century. She was the wife of William Bardolf, Lord of Wormegay, and their family held lands in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Another notable historical figure with the name was Kelsey Grammer, an American actor and producer best known for his role as Dr. Frasier Crane on the TV series Frasier. He was born in 1955 and has won numerous awards throughout his career.
In the 16th century, there was a Kelsey Rayner who served as a Member of Parliament for Exeter in 1553 during the reign of Queen Mary I of England.
Moving into the 20th century, Kelsey Hibbert was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for the Toronto St. Patricks and Hamilton Tigers in the National Hockey League from 1924 to 1927.
While the name Kelsie is a more recent spelling variation, it shares the same rich historical roots as the traditional Scottish name Kelsey, tracing back to the coastal regions of Scotland and early English settlements.
People
Kelsie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelsie 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
Kelsie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelsie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,034 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelsie 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 18,007 US residents.
Is Kelsie a common name?
We classify Kelsie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 19,852 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelsie most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelsie was 1993, when 1,228 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelsie is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kelsie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,217 people with the name Kelsie, or 5.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,754 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 Kelsie 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 Kelsie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelsie leans strongly female. 16,973 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 244 male bearers (1.4%). 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 Kelsie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelsie is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.7%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Kelsie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelsie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.5% (14,036 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 Kelsie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelsie a female name?
Yes, 98.3% of people registered as Kelsie 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 Kelsie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelsie 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 Kelsie 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 Kelsie?
See how many Americans are named Kelsie on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.