Kemberly
A feminine given name derived from the English surname Kimble or Kemble.
Name Census estimates that about 1,379 living Americans carry the first name Kemberly. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kemberly today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kemberly births was 1968 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kemberly. 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
1.4K
~ 1 in 248,553 Americans
Peak year
1968
50 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2020 SSA rank
#16,327
Tracked since 1955
Census
Kemberly in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,279 people with the first name Kemberly, which placed it at #10,436 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
#10,436
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,279 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kemberly
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kemberly is White at 43.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.4%) and Black (21.7%). 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 Kemberly 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 Kemberly at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.2% · 552
- Hispanic or Latino31.4% · 401
- Black or African American21.7% · 277
- Two or more races2.5% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 8
Popularity
Kemberly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kemberly from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 327 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kemberly 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 Kemberly during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kemberlys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Kemberly, while Mississippi, North Carolina, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 45 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kemberly
The name Kemberly is a relatively modern and unique variation of the more common English name Kimberly, which itself is derived from the ancient Germanic name Kyneburg or Cyneburg. This original name is composed of the elements "cyne" meaning "royal" and "burg" meaning "fortress" or "protection."
Kyneburg was a feminine name used during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. It was borne by a 7th-century English saint, Kyneburg of Mereham, who founded a monastery near Newcastle. The name evolved over time, with variants like Kimbrough and Kymbery appearing in medieval records.
The modern spelling Kimberly emerged in the 19th century, possibly influenced by the surname Kimberley, named after a town in Nottinghamshire, England. One of the earliest recorded instances of Kimberly as a given name was Kimberly Johnson, born in 1838 in Pennsylvania, United States.
Notable historical figures named Kimberly include Kimberly Peirce, an American film director born in 1967, known for her movies "Boys Don't Cry" and "Stop-Loss." Kimberly Elise, born in 1967, is an American actress who has appeared in films like "Beloved" and "For Colored Girls."
Kimberly Wooten, born in 1962, is a former professional tennis player from the United States, who reached the semifinals of the US Open in 1986. Kimberly Brown, born in 1976, is a British classical soprano and Grammy Award winner.
Kimberly Cowell, born in 1966, is an American author and journalist, best known for her work on the book "Marie Antoinette: A Life." These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have borne the name Kimberly or its variant Kemberly throughout history.
People
Kemberly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kemberly 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
Kemberly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kemberly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,379 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kemberly 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 248,553 US residents.
Is Kemberly a common name?
We classify Kemberly as "Rare". It ranks above 92% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,503 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kemberly most popular?
The single biggest year for Kemberly was 1968, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kemberly is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kemberly in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,279 people with the name Kemberly, or 0.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,436 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 Kemberly 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 Kemberly?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kemberly leans strongly female. 1,264 people counted with this name were female (98.4%), compared with 20 male bearers (1.6%). 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 Kemberly?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kemberly is White at 43.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.4%) and Black (21.7%). 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 Kemberly most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kemberly in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.2% (552 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 Kemberly in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kemberly a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kemberly 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 Kemberly still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kemberly 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 Kemberly 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 are named Kemberly?
See how many people have the name Kemberly on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.