# Kay (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/kay/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | Welsh |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkeɪ/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Kaye, Keay |
| US babies named this | 102,545 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 3,924 / 98,621 (96% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 472, 1996 to 2025 |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 47 | 3,432 |
| 2012 | 52 | 3,191 |
| 2013 | 51 | 3,204 |
| 2014 | 60 | 2,870 |
| 2015 | 43 | 3,632 |
| 2016 | 47 | 3,399 |
| 2017 | 51 | 3,175 |
| 2018 | 63 | 2,723 |
| 2019 | 43 | 3,586 |
| 2020 | 42 | 3,577 |
| 2021 | 42 | 3,644 |
| 2022 | 47 | 3,391 |
| 2023 | 48 | 3,349 |
| 2024 | 38 | 3,926 |
| 2025 | 37 | 3,946 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 6 | 10,250 |
| 2004 | 7 | 9,462 |
| 2005 | 5 | 12,409 |
| 2014 | 6 | 11,439 |
| 2015 | 8 | 9,163 |
| 2016 | 5 | 13,233 |
| 2017 | 8 | 9,294 |
| 2018 | 6 | 11,492 |
| 2019 | 7 | 10,303 |
| 2020 | 10 | 7,805 |
| 2021 | 9 | 8,517 |
| 2022 | 10 | 8,049 |
| 2023 | 13 | 6,719 |
| 2024 | 14 | 6,334 |
| 2025 | 10 | 7,951 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 12 | 1,862 |
| 2007 | 14 | 1,741 |
| 2008 | 9 | 2,487 |
| 2009 | 6 | 3,422 |
| 2010 | 7 | 3,156 |
| 2011 | 9 | 2,636 |
| 2012 | 11 | 2,338 |
| 2013 | 5 | 4,050 |
| 2014 | 7 | 3,160 |
| 2015 | 8 | 2,945 |
| 2016 | 4 | 4,763 |
| 2017 | 9 | 2,706 |
| 2018 | 3 | 5,666 |
| 2022 | 5 | 3,970 |
| 2025 | 3 | 5,927 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 3 | 3,225 |
| 2005 | 3 | 3,849 |
| 2006 | 3 | 4,052 |
| 2009 | 3 | 4,527 |
| 2014 | 4 | 3,895 |
| 2015 | 3 | 4,747 |
| 2018 | 4 | 3,959 |
| 2019 | 3 | 4,702 |

## People named Kay

- Kay Panabaker, American actress
- Kay Bailey Hutchison, American politician (born 1943)
- Kay Kendall, English actress (1927-1959)
- Kay Francis, American actress (1905–1968)
- Kay Hagan, American politician (1953-2019)
- Mary Kay Bergman, American voice actress
- Charles Kay Ogden, English linguist, philosopher, writer (1889–1957)
- Kay Lenz, American actress
- Kay Parker, English pornographic actress
- Kay Granger, American politician (1943–2026)
- Kay Redfield Jamison, American bipolar disorder researcher
- Kay Sage, American Surrealist artist and poet (1898–1963)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.