Kelso
A Scottish name meaning "chalky" or "light-hued" or "of the bright stream".
Name Census estimates that about 277 living Americans carry the first name Kelso. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kelso today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelso births was 2024 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelso. 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 Kelso with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
277
~ 1 in 1,237,380 Americans
Peak year
2024
24 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,367
Tracked since 1915
Census
Kelso in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 295 people with the first name Kelso, which placed it at #29,826 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
#29,826
National first-name rank
People counted
295
295 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelso
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelso is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Black (14.6%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Kelso 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 Kelso at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.7% · 185
- Black or African American14.6% · 43
- Hispanic or Latino11.5% · 34
- Two or more races6.8% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 6
Popularity
Kelso: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelso from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 95 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kelso 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 Kelso during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kelsos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kelso
The given name Kelso has its origins in the Scottish Borders region, where it likely derived from the town of the same name. The town's name is thought to come from the Brittonic words 'cal' meaning 'narrow' and 'ys' meaning 'stream' or 'water,' referring to the River Tweed that flows through the area. The earliest recorded spelling of the name as a surname dates back to the 12th century, with references to individuals like Richard de Kelso in the late 1100s.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Kelso as a first name was John Kelso, a Scottish clergyman and writer who lived from 1734 to 1819. He served as a minister in the Church of Scotland and published several works, including a treatise on the antiquities of Scotland.
In the 19th century, Kelso was a relatively uncommon first name, but there were a few notable individuals who bore it. One example is Kelso Everett Moore (1833-1909), an American politician and lawyer who served as a Confederate colonel during the American Civil War.
Another historical figure with the name Kelso was Kelso Curry (1875-1950), an American baseball player who spent most of his career in the minor leagues but also played for the Philadelphia Phillies in the early 1900s.
In the 20th century, one of the most famous individuals named Kelso was Kelso Herston (1915-1983), an American jockey who won the Kentucky Derby in 1963 aboard Chateaugay. He was also inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1992.
A more recent example is Kelso Sampson (born 1950), an American basketball coach who has served as the head coach for several college teams, including the University of Oklahoma and Indiana University.
While the name Kelso has Scottish origins and has been used as a first name throughout history, it remains relatively uncommon compared to other names. However, its unique sound and historical connections to places like the Scottish Borders have contributed to its enduring use as a given name over the centuries.
People
Kelso + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelso 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
Kelso: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelso?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelso 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 1,237,380 US residents.
Is Kelso a common name?
We classify Kelso as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 373 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelso most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelso was 2024, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelso is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kelso in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 295 people with the name Kelso, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,826 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 Kelso 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 Kelso?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelso leans strongly male. 280 people counted with this name were male (93.0%), compared with 21 female bearers (7.0%). 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 Kelso?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelso is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Black (14.6%) and Hispanic (11.5%). 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 Kelso most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kelso in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.7% (185 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 Kelso in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelso a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kelso 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 Kelso still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelso 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 Kelso 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 have the name Kelso?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.