Kye
A masculine English name of uncertain origin, possibly a variant of Kyle.
Name Census estimates that about 5,675 living Americans carry the first name Kye. It is a predominantly male name (94.1% of registrations). The average person named Kye today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kye births was 2016 (369 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kye. 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 Kye with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kye is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.7K
~ 1 in 60,397 Americans
Peak year
2016
369 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,195
Tracked since 1956
Census
Kye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,870 people with the first name Kye, which placed it at #3,994 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
#3,994
National first-name rank
People counted
4.9K
4,870 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kye is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). 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 Kye 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 Kye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.6% · 2,512
- Black or African American17.3% · 844
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.1% · 688
- Hispanic or Latino7.9% · 387
- Two or more races7.9% · 385
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 54
Gender
Gender distribution for Kye
Kye leans heavily male at 94.1% of total registrations, but 340 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kye as a male name
- Ranked #1,195 in 2024
- 171 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (356 births)
Kye as a female name
- Ranked #16,523 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (22 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kye leans strongly male. 4,022 people counted with this name were male (82.7%), compared with 842 female bearers (17.3%).
Popularity
Kye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kye from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,361 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kye remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kye 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 Kye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kyes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 34 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Kye, while West Virginia, Nebraska, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 95 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kye
The name Kye has its origins in Old English and Old Norse languages, tracing back to the 5th to 11th centuries. It is derived from the Old English word "cy" or "cye", meaning "cow" or "bovine". This suggests that the name may have originally been associated with cattle herding or farming communities in the British Isles and Scandinavia during the early medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Kye can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record compiled in the late 9th century. The entry for the year 876 AD refers to a battle between the Danes and Saxons, where a warrior named Kye is mentioned as fighting alongside King Alfred the Great.
In the 12th century, the name Kye appears in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of ancient Norse literature. The Saga of Grettir the Strong, written around 1180 AD, mentions a character named Kye Sölmundarson, who was a renowned Viking warrior and explorer.
During the Middle Ages, the name Kye was relatively uncommon but still found usage throughout various parts of Europe. One notable bearer of the name was Kye of Anjou, a French nobleman who lived in the 13th century and served as a knight in the court of King Louis IX.
In the 16th century, the name Kye gained some prominence in Scotland, where it was often spelled as "Kie". One famous Scotsman with this name was Kie Muir, a renowned philosopher and theologian who lived from 1532 to 1598 and was a professor at the University of Glasgow.
Another historical figure with the name Kye was Kye Grönvall, a Swedish military officer who lived from 1667 to 1734. He played a significant role in the Great Northern War, serving as a general under King Charles XII of Sweden.
People
Kye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kye 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
Kye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,675 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kye 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 60,397 US residents.
Is Kye a common name?
We classify Kye as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,761 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kye most popular?
The single biggest year for Kye was 2016, when 369 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kye is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,870 people with the name Kye, or 1.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,994 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 Kye 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 Kye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kye leans strongly male. 4,022 people counted with this name were male (82.7%), compared with 842 female bearers (17.3%). 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 Kye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kye is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). 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 Kye most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.6% (2,512 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 Kye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kye a male name?
Yes, 94.1% of people registered as Kye 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 Kye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kye 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 Kye 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 Kye?
Find out how many people share the name Kye on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.