# Keir (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/keir/  
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 | boys |
| Origin | Scottish Gaelic |
| Meaning | “dark”, “a fort” |
| Pronunciation | /kɪɹ/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 1,117 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 1,053 / 64 (6% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 837, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic ciar (“dark”) or Old Norse [Term?]. Hanks (2006) derived the name from Pictish/Proto-Brythonic *kaɨr (“a fort”), possibly via Scots keir.

## What it means

Keir is grouped under black.

## 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1969 | 6 | 7,011 |
| 1970 | 11 | 4,897 |
| 1971 | 6 | 7,816 |
| 1973 | 6 | 7,868 |
| 1974 | 9 | 5,982 |
| 1976 | 6 | 8,620 |
| 1977 | 5 | 10,350 |
| 1978 | 5 | 10,497 |
| 1984 | 5 | 11,211 |
| 1994 | 5 | 14,518 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 13 | 6,426 |
| 2012 | 10 | 7,855 |
| 2013 | 15 | 5,808 |
| 2014 | 16 | 5,599 |
| 2015 | 21 | 4,627 |
| 2016 | 5 | 13,262 |
| 2017 | 12 | 6,910 |
| 2018 | 11 | 7,388 |
| 2019 | 12 | 6,992 |
| 2020 | 12 | 6,834 |
| 2021 | 17 | 5,457 |
| 2022 | 20 | 4,938 |
| 2023 | 17 | 5,575 |
| 2024 | 13 | 6,652 |
| 2025 | 7 | 10,207 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 5 | 2,701 |
| 2000 | 3 | 3,912 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 20 | 1,218 |
| 2010 | 33 | 878 |
| 2011 | 26 | 1,024 |
| 2012 | 21 | 1,229 |
| 2013 | 16 | 1,462 |
| 2014 | 13 | 1,721 |
| 2015 | 12 | 1,902 |
| 2016 | 14 | 1,704 |
| 2017 | 22 | 1,210 |
| 2018 | 17 | 1,455 |
| 2019 | 15 | 1,587 |
| 2020 | 9 | 2,228 |
| 2021 | 6 | 3,017 |
| 2022 | 3 | 4,789 |
| 2023 | 4 | 4,107 |

## In other languages

- Scottish Gaelic: Keir

## People named Keir

- Keir Dullea, American actor
- Keir Gilchrist, Canadian actor
- Keir O'Donnell, Australian–American actor
- Keir Mather, British politician (born 1998)
- Richard Pankhurst, British-Ethiopian scholar (1927–2017)

## 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.