Keslie
A feminine given name of Scottish origin, a variant of "Ceilidh" meaning "celebration" or "festival".
Name Census estimates that about 237 living Americans carry the first name Keslie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keslie today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keslie births was 1991 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keslie. 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
237
~ 1 in 1,446,221 Americans
Peak year
1991
18 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,443
Tracked since 1978
Census
Keslie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 287 people with the first name Keslie, which placed it at #30,385 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
#30,385
National first-name rank
People counted
287
287 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keslie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keslie is White at 77.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.8%) and Black (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 Keslie 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 Keslie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.7% · 223
- Hispanic or Latino11.8% · 34
- Black or African American5.9% · 17
- Two or more races3.5% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Keslie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keslie from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 82 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
Keslie 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 Keslie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keslie
The name Keslie is a modern English variant of the name Leslie, which has its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language. The name is derived from the Old Scots phrase "les-lye," meaning "garden of herbs" or "herb garden." It is believed to have been a reference to a particular location in Scotland, possibly a place name or estate.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Leslie dates back to the 12th century, when it was used as a surname for a family from the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was David de Lesselyne, a landowner mentioned in records from around 1171.
In the 14th century, the Leslie family rose to prominence in Scottish nobility, with Sir Andrew Leslie being granted the title of Earl of Rothes in 1457. Over the centuries, the name Leslie has been associated with several notable figures in Scottish and British history, including John Leslie, a 16th-century Scottish mathematician and philosopher (1571-1671), and Charles Robert Leslie, a 19th-century English painter (1794-1859).
As the name Leslie gained popularity, it began to be used as a given name, particularly for girls, in addition to its use as a surname. The variant spelling Keslie emerged in the late 20th century as a more modern and unique form of the traditional Leslie.
One notable bearer of the name Keslie was Keslie Anne Stevens, an American actress and model who appeared in several films and television shows in the 1980s and 1990s. Another was Keslie Gwyn Miller, an American author and poet who published works in the early 21st century.
While the name Keslie is relatively uncommon, its connection to the historic Scottish name Leslie and its roots in the Gaelic language give it a rich cultural heritage that has been carried through various forms over the centuries.
People
Keslie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keslie 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
Keslie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keslie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 237 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keslie 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 1,446,221 US residents.
Is Keslie a common name?
We classify Keslie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 243 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keslie most popular?
The single biggest year for Keslie was 1991, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keslie is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keslie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 287 people with the name Keslie, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,385 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 Keslie 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 Keslie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keslie leans strongly female. 285 people counted with this name were female (98.3%), compared with 5 male bearers (1.7%). 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 Keslie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keslie is White at 77.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.8%) and Black (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 Keslie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keslie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.7% (223 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 Keslie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keslie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keslie 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 Keslie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keslie 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 Keslie 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 Keslie?
See how many Americans are named Keslie on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.