Keshia
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly derived from Keisha.
Name Census estimates that about 5,046 living Americans carry the first name Keshia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keshia today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keshia births was 1986 (511 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keshia. 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 Keshia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.0K
~ 1 in 67,926 Americans
Peak year
1986
511 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
1989 SSA rank
#7,463
Tracked since 1964
Census
Keshia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,777 people with the first name Keshia, which placed it at #4,057 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
#4,057
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,777 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
60.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keshia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keshia is Black at 60.8%. The next largest groups are White (25.0%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Keshia 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 Keshia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American60.8% · 2,906
- White25.0% · 1,195
- Two or more races5.9% · 283
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 250
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 75
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 68
Gender
Gender distribution for Keshia
Out of the 5,386 babies given the name Keshia since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Keshia as a male name
- Ranked #7,463 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (6 births)
Keshia as a female name
- Ranked #12,781 in 2011
- 8 female births in 2011
- Peak: 1986 (511 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keshia appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,786 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Keshia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keshia from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 2,661 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keshia 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 Keshia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keshias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. New York, Texas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Keshia, while South Dakota, New Mexico, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 99 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keshia
The name Keshia is derived from the Irish Gaelic name Caiside, which itself has roots in the Old Irish name Cásshíd. The name Cásshíd is believed to have originated from the Latin name Cassius, which was a Roman family name derived from the word "caesius," meaning "grey-eyed" or "bluish-grey."
The earliest recorded use of the name Keshia can be traced back to the late 19th century, when it began appearing in birth records in parts of Ireland and Scotland. It is thought that the name Keshia emerged as an Anglicized version of the Irish Gaelic name Caiside, which was itself a variation of the older name Cásshíd.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Keshia was Keshia O'Donnell, an Irish woman born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1876. Another notable early bearer of the name was Keshia MacKenzie, a Scottish woman born in the Highlands in 1892.
In the early 20th century, the name Keshia gained some popularity among Irish and Scottish immigrants to the United States. One of the earliest recorded Americans with the name was Keshia Doherty, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1904.
Throughout the 20th century, the name Keshia continued to be used by individuals of Irish and Scottish descent, although it remained relatively uncommon. Some notable bearers of the name include Keshia Mullen, an Irish-American actress born in New York City in 1932, and Keshia McLeod, a Scottish author and poet born in Glasgow in 1946.
While the name Keshia has its origins in Ireland and Scotland, it has also been adopted by individuals of various cultural backgrounds, particularly in the United States and Canada. One of the most famous individuals with the name Keshia is American actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, best known for her role as Rudy Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show. Pulliam was born in 1979 in Newark, New Jersey.
People
Keshia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keshia 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
Keshia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keshia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,046 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keshia 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 67,926 US residents.
Is Keshia a common name?
We classify Keshia as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,386 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keshia most popular?
The single biggest year for Keshia was 1986, when 511 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keshia 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 Keshia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,777 people with the name Keshia, or 1.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,057 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 Keshia 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 Keshia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keshia appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,786 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Keshia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keshia is Black at 60.8%. The next largest groups are White (25.0%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Keshia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Keshia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.8% (2,906 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 Keshia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keshia a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Keshia 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 Keshia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keshia 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 Keshia 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 Keshia?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Keshia at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.