Kelly

Where Kelly comes from

Borrowed from Irish Ó Ceallaigh. Doublet of Kellogg and Callahan.
— Wiktionary's entry for Kelly
  • From a surname
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Kelly through the years
  1. 1907
    First appearance
    #2,061 among girls with 5 babies, the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1957
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name. From this year on, more girls have.
  3. 1962
    Kelly Preston born
    American actress
  4. 1977
    Peak, #10
    18,234 babies named Kelly, the most in any year.
  5. 1982
    Kelly Clarkson born
    American singer-songwriter
  6. 1988
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #32.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name transferred from the surname.
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, popular from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Namesakes
  • Kelly Clarkson · American singer-songwriter, born 1982
  • Kelly Preston · American actress, 1962–2020
  • Kelly Brook · British actress and model, born 1979
  • Kelly Macdonald · Scottish actress, born 1976
  • Kelly Hu · American actress, born 1968

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.