Kish
An English masculine name of uncertain origin, possibly from the biblical name Kish.
Name Census estimates that about 18 living Americans carry the first name Kish. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Kish today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kish births was 1977 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kish. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Kish. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
18
~ 1 in 19,041,908 Americans
Peak year
1977
10 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1977 SSA rank
#6,375
Tracked since 1971
Census
Kish in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 157 people with the first name Kish, which placed it at #44,257 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
#44,257
National first-name rank
People counted
157
157 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
33.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kish
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kish is White at 33.8%. The next largest groups are Black (33.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (15.9%). 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 Kish 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 Kish at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White33.8% · 53
- Black or African American33.8% · 53
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.9% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.5% · 7
- Two or more races4.5% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Kish
Kish is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 20 total registrations, 5 (25.0%) were male and 15 (75.0%) were female.
Kish as a male name
- Ranked #6,375 in 1977
- 5 male births in 1977
- Peak: 1977 (5 births)
Kish as a female name
- Ranked #10,401 in 1977
- 5 female births in 1977
- Peak: 1971 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kish on both sides of the split. Of the 160 people counted with this name, 84 were male (52.5%) and 76 were female (47.5%).
Popularity
Kish: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Kish 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 Kish during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 5 | 15 | 20 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Kish
The name Kish finds its roots in the ancient Sumerian language, originating from the region of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around the 3rd millennium BCE. It is derived from the Sumerian word "kish," which translates to "totality" or "entirety," implying a sense of completeness or wholeness.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kish appears in the Sumerian King List, an ancient manuscript detailing the rulers of various Sumerian city-states. Kish was the name of a prominent city-state located near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and it was one of the earliest urban centers in Mesopotamia.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest known literary works from ancient Mesopotamia, Kish is mentioned as the city where the hero Gilgamesh was born and ruled as king. This epic, dating back to around 2100 BCE, provides insight into the cultural significance of the name and its association with kingship and heroic deeds.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kish. One of the earliest recorded was Kish, a Sumerian king who ruled the city-state of Kish around 2800 BCE. He is mentioned in the Sumerian King List and is credited with establishing the first dynasty of Kish.
Another prominent figure was Kish of Judah, a biblical figure mentioned in the Old Testament. He was the father of Saul, the first king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Books of Samuel.
In the 6th century BCE, Kish was also the name of a Persian prince and son of the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great. He is mentioned in the Behistun Inscription, a multilingual inscription carved into a rock face in modern-day Iran.
During the Islamic Golden Age, Kish ibn Sa'id al-Ugli (born around 920 CE) was a renowned mathematician and astronomer from Khwarezm (modern-day Uzbekistan). He made significant contributions to the development of algebra and trigonometry.
In more recent times, Kish Singh Sidhu (1924-2014) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician who played a crucial role in the Indian independence movement and served as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
These examples highlight the diverse historical and cultural contexts in which the name Kish has been used, spanning various regions, time periods, and fields of human endeavor.
People
Kish + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kish 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
Kish: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kish?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kish 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 19,041,908 US residents.
Is Kish a common name?
We classify Kish as "Very Rare". It ranks above 38.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 20 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kish most popular?
The single biggest year for Kish was 1977, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kish is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kish in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 157 people with the name Kish, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,257 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 Kish 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 Kish?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kish on both sides of the split. Of the 160 people counted with this name, 84 were male (52.5%) and 76 were female (47.5%). 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 Kish?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kish is White at 33.8%. The next largest groups are Black (33.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (15.9%). 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 Kish most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kish in the 2020 Census, accounting for 33.8% (53 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 Kish in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kish a female name?
Yes, 75.0% of people registered as Kish 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 Kish still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kish 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 Kish 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 Kish?
Want to know how many people have the name Kish? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.