Skip to content
Name Lineage

    The surname Kilby

    An English place surname, carried by 4,412 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex K410

    Kilby: #7,534 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Kilby #7,534, 4,412 people Kilby: #7,534 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Kilby #7,534, 4,412 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Kilby is more common than 95.4% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

    From Old English ċild (“child”) + Old Norse býr (“settlement”). Compare Kelby, which shares the same etymology.

    Kilby is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

    One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 4,412 people named Kilby in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 69,979 Americans. That is up 1.1% since 2000, when the Census counted 4,363.

    #7,534
    rank among US surnames
    4,412
    people in 2010
    1.5
    per 100,000 Americans
    +1.1%
    change since 2000 (was #7,068)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #7,530Caudillo4,41869,884
    #7,531Almendarez4,41569,931
    #7,532Messier4,41369,963
    #7,534Kilby4,41269,979
    #7,536Tung4,41169,994

    Who is named Kilby

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

    90% of people named Kilby identified as white (not Hispanic), 6.0% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 90%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 6.0%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
    • Two or more races 1.5%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.3%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Kilbys

    3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Jack Kilby
      American electrical engineer (1923–2005)
    • Brian Kilby
      British athlete (1938–2024)
    • Thomas Kilby
      American politician (1865–1943)

    Notable Kilbys come mostly from the United States (2) and the United Kingdom (1).

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Kilby come from?
    From Old English ċild (“child”) + Old Norse býr (“settlement”). Compare Kelby, which shares the same etymology.
    How common is the surname Kilby?
    4,412 people in the United States had the surname Kilby in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 69,979 Americans. It ranked 7,534th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Kilby?
    In the 2010 Census, 90% of people named Kilby identified as white (not Hispanic), and 6.0% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Kilby?
    Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer (1923–2005), followed by Brian Kilby.
    Where is the surname Kilby most common?
    Wikidata records people named Kilby in the United States and the United Kingdom.
    What type of surname is Kilby?
    Kilby is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Kilby getting more or less common?
    More common. 4,363 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,412 in 2010, up 1.1%.