Meaning not yet researched.
Kelby: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 18 in 2025. Its best rank was #746 in 1991.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #746 in 1991; #5,313 in 2025. About 56% of babies named Kelby in 2025 were boys.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#5,313 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 1991, at #746.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Kelby: US boys and girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 18 boys in 2025. Peak: #746 in 1991 · most boys in one year: 187 (1991).
In 2025, 18 US boys were named Kelby, making it the 5,313th most common boys’ name of the year, up 1,023 places from #6,336 in 2024. That is 4 more than the 14 boys named Kelby in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #746, reached in 1991. That year also had the most boys given the name: 187. For comparison, it was #2,833 in 2015 and #2,902 in 1950.
In 2025, 14 US girls were named Kelby, making it the 7,682nd most common girls’ name of the year, down 879 places from #6,803 in 2024. That is 3 fewer than the 17 girls named Kelby in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #1,665, reached in 1991. That year also had the most girls given the name: 90. For comparison, it was #5,752 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Kelby in 73 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1948 with 5 babies. In all, 5,582 US babies have been given the name, 28% of them girls and 72% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1990s, with 1,979 babies named Kelby.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 244 US boys were named Kelby; the busiest of those years was 2018, with 40. In 2025 that was about 1 in 94,893 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Rarer spellings such as Kelbi, Kelbie and Kilby are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
No related spellings pass our data threshold.
Rare spellings summarised here: Kelbi (305), Kelbie (286), Kilby (6).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Kelby in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | #7,682 | 18 | #5,313 |
| 2024 | 17 | #6,803 | 14 | #6,336 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,754 | 20 | #4,982 |
| 2022 | 17 | #6,853 | 26 | #4,145 |
| 2021 | 11 | #9,253 | 24 | #4,312 |
| 2020 | 22 | #5,568 | 22 | #4,492 |
| 2019 | 20 | #6,082 | 19 | #5,057 |
| 2018 | 18 | #6,663 | 40 | #2,974 |
| 2017 | 13 | #8,549 | 29 | #3,725 |
| 2016 | 20 | #6,294 | 32 | #3,482 |
| 2015 | 23 | #5,752 | 42 | #2,833 |
| 2014 | 29 | #4,839 | 40 | #2,910 |
| 2013 | 24 | #5,575 | 47 | #2,578 |
| 2012 | 32 | #4,551 | 59 | #2,224 |
| 2011 | 33 | #4,414 | 50 | #2,490 |
| 2010 | 35 | #4,252 | 74 | #1,918 |
| 2009 | 29 | #5,013 | 53 | #2,423 |
| 2008 | 48 | #3,454 | 79 | #1,853 |
| 2007 | 47 | #3,508 | 76 | #1,885 |
| 2006 | 39 | #3,894 | 72 | #1,886 |
| 2005 | 41 | #3,619 | 79 | #1,703 |
| 2004 | 46 | #3,295 | 110 | #1,340 |
| 2003 | 52 | #2,934 | 109 | #1,293 |
| 2002 | 58 | #2,657 | 68 | #1,715 |
| 2001 | 59 | #2,584 | 108 | #1,237 |
| 2000 | 50 | #2,880 | 75 | #1,577 |
| 1999 | 59 | #2,451 | 118 | #1,123 |
| 1998 | 53 | #2,594 | 134 | #1,014 |
| 1997 | 65 | #2,145 | 110 | #1,137 |
| 1996 | 50 | #2,534 | 97 | #1,185 |
| 1995 | 58 | #2,296 | 138 | #947 |
| 1994 | 48 | #2,606 | 152 | #878 |
| 1993 | 70 | #1,995 | 151 | #863 |
| 1992 | 88 | #1,708 | 154 | #855 |
| 1991 | 90 | #1,665 | 187 | #746 |
| 1990 | 34 | #3,256 | 123 | #931 |
| 1989 | 20 | #4,582 | 117 | #943 |
| 1988 | 19 | #4,567 | 114 | #900 |
| 1987 | 22 | #3,915 | 88 | #1,014 |
| 1986 | 10 | #6,839 | 58 | #1,276 |
| 1985 | 10 | #6,690 | 52 | #1,339 |
| 1984 | 13 | #5,357 | 45 | #1,433 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,470 | 43 | #1,456 |
| 1982 | — | — | 32 | #1,795 |
| 1981 | 9 | #7,056 | 39 | #1,566 |
| 1980 | 5 | #11,158 | 49 | #1,350 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,514 | 44 | #1,412 |
| 1978 | — | — | 37 | #1,551 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,927 | 48 | #1,301 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,664 | 48 | #1,273 |
| 1975 | — | — | 46 | #1,270 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,230 | 46 | #1,235 |
| 1973 | — | — | 56 | #1,085 |
| 1972 | — | — | 57 | #1,076 |
| 1971 | — | — | 48 | #1,190 |
| 1970 | — | — | 44 | #1,255 |
| 1969 | — | — | 23 | #1,751 |
| 1968 | — | — | 23 | #1,664 |
| 1967 | — | — | 14 | #2,208 |
| 1966 | — | — | 7 | #3,383 |
| 1964 | — | — | 7 | #3,454 |
| 1961 | — | — | 5 | #4,372 |
| 1960 | — | — | 7 | #3,497 |
| 1959 | — | — | 6 | #3,810 |
| 1958 | — | — | 9 | #2,930 |
| 1957 | — | — | 10 | #2,739 |
| 1954 | — | — | 6 | #3,634 |
| 1953 | — | — | 11 | #2,459 |
| 1952 | — | — | 6 | #3,560 |
| 1951 | — | — | 7 | #3,215 |
| 1950 | — | — | 8 | #2,902 |
| 1949 | — | — | 5 | #3,974 |
| 1948 | — | — | 5 | #3,943 |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).