Khiry
An Arabic name meaning "innocent" or "sweet-natured".
Name Census estimates that about 1,136 living Americans carry the first name Khiry. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Khiry today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khiry births was 1990 (251 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khiry. 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
1.1K
~ 1 in 301,720 Americans
Peak year
1990
251 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,795
Tracked since 1989
Census
Khiry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 806 people with the first name Khiry, which placed it at #14,580 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
#14,580
National first-name rank
People counted
806
806 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
87.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khiry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khiry is Black at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.7%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Khiry 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 Khiry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American87.7% · 707
- Two or more races6.7% · 54
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 29
- White1.9% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Khiry
Out of the 1,163 babies given the name Khiry since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Khiry as a male name
- Ranked #11,675 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (244 births)
Khiry as a female name
- Ranked #10,795 in 1990
- 7 female births in 1990
- Peak: 1990 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khiry leans strongly male. 779 people counted with this name were male (96.4%), compared with 29 female bearers (3.6%).
Popularity
Khiry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khiry from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 658 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
Khiry 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 Khiry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Khirys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. New York, Georgia, Florida recorded the most babies named Khiry, while Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Khiry
The name Khiry is of Arabic origin, derived from the word "khair," which means "good" or "goodness." It's believed to have originated in the Arabian Peninsula around the 7th century, during the rise of Islam and the spread of the Arabic language.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Khiry can be found in the Hadith, a collection of sayings and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. In one of the Hadith, the name Khiry is mentioned as a virtuous name given to a child, reflecting the Islamic values of goodness and righteousness.
In the Middle Ages, the name Khiry gained popularity among Muslim communities across the Middle East and North Africa. It was often given to children as a way of expressing the parents' hope for their child to grow up with good character and fortune.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Khiry. One of the earliest known examples is Khiry ibn Abi Nasr al-Shami (born around 1020 CE), a renowned Islamic scholar and poet from Damascus, Syria. His works on Arabic grammar and poetry are still studied today.
Another notable figure was Khiry al-Qudsi (1212-1285 CE), a Sufi mystic and poet from Jerusalem. He was known for his spiritual teachings and his contributions to the literary tradition of Arabic poetry.
In the 14th century, Khiry al-Dimashqi (1325-1405 CE) was a prominent historian and geographer from Damascus. His book, "Nukhbat al-Dahr fi 'Aja'ib al-Barr wa al-Bahr" (The Cream of the Age Concerning the Marvels of Land and Sea), is considered a valuable source of information on the geography and history of the medieval Islamic world.
During the Ottoman Empire, Khiry Pasha (1499-1563 CE) was a notable figure who served as the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He played a significant role in the administration and military campaigns of the Ottoman Empire.
In more recent times, Khiry Shelton (born 1993) is an American professional soccer player who currently plays for Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer.
While the name Khiry has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has transcended these boundaries and is now used by people of various backgrounds and ethnicities around the world, particularly in Western countries.
People
Khiry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khiry 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
Khiry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khiry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,136 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khiry 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 301,720 US residents.
Is Khiry a common name?
We classify Khiry as "Rare". It ranks above 90.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,163 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khiry most popular?
The single biggest year for Khiry was 1990, when 251 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khiry 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 Khiry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 806 people with the name Khiry, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,580 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 Khiry 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 Khiry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khiry leans strongly male. 779 people counted with this name were male (96.4%), compared with 29 female bearers (3.6%). 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 Khiry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khiry is Black at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.7%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Khiry most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Khiry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.7% (707 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 Khiry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khiry a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Khiry 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 Khiry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khiry 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 Khiry 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 share the name Khiry?
Want to know how many Americans are named Khiry? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.