How common is the surname Keys?

18,899 people in the United States had the surname Keys in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,337 Americans. It ranked 1,900th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Keys?

Ancel Keys, American nutritionist (1904-2004), followed by Bobby Keys.

Where is the surname Keys most common?

Wikidata records people named Keys in the United States.

Is the surname Keys getting more or less common?

More common. 17,763 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,899 in 2010, up 6.4%.

The surname Keys

A surname, carried by 18,899 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex K200

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Keys is more common than 98.8% of them.

Origin

A surname.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 18,899 people named Keys in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 16,337 Americans. That is up 6.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 17,763.

#1,900

rank among US surnames

18,899

people in 2010

6.4

per 100,000 Americans

+6.4%

change since 2000 (was #1,860)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,891	Stacy	19,010	16,241
#1,892	Pettit	19,004	16,246
#1,893	Bateman	19,001	16,249
#1,894	Pulido	18,942	16,300
#1,895	Roche	18,940	16,301
#1,896	Tobin	18,932	16,308
#1,897	Zaragoza	18,908	16,329

Who is named Keys

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

49% of people named Keys identified as white (not Hispanic), 44% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.3% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 49%
Black (not Hispanic) 44%
Two or more races 3.3%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.1%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.3%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Keyss

4 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Ancel Keys
American nutritionist (1904-2004)
Bobby Keys
American saxophonist (1943-2014)
Peter Keys
American keyboardist, born 1965
Martha Keys
American politician, 1930–2024

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Keys

Keys has the Soundex code K200, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code K200.

Questions

How common is the surname Keys?: 18,899 people in the United States had the surname Keys in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,337 Americans. It ranked 1,900th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Keys?: In the 2010 Census, 49% of people named Keys identified as white (not Hispanic), and 44% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Keys?: Ancel Keys, American nutritionist (1904-2004), followed by Bobby Keys.
Where is the surname Keys most common?: Wikidata records people named Keys in the United States.
Is the surname Keys getting more or less common?: More common. 17,763 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,899 in 2010, up 6.4%.