Name Awesome

Kacey

#1,118 in 2025UnisexGirls' nameBoys' name

Watchful, in the Casey surname family

Kacey has been given to 15,265 babies in the U.S. since 1952. In 2025 it ranked #1,118 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1991, with 402 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 78% girls, 22% boys all-time.

Babies named Kacey, 2025

1 in 15,700

Kacey over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Kacey over time

In 2025, Kacey went to 54% girls and 46% boys.

19522025

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Kacey: meaning, origin, and history

Watchful, in the Casey surname family

English spelling of an Irish surname name

About Kacey

Kacey is an English spelling of Casey, a name taken from an Irish surname connected with “watchful.” Its two-syllable KAY-see sound is familiar for both girls and boys. Singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves gives the spelling a major contemporary cultural association through country music and her Grammy-winning album Golden Hour.

Meaning and surname roots

Casey represents Irish Ó Cathasaigh, meaning “descendant of Cathasach.” The older personal name is associated with watchfulness, which supplies the familiar short meaning attached to the modern name.

Kacey keeps the sound while replacing Casey’s first letter and changing its middle spelling. Kasey, Kacie, and Kacy are other related English forms.

The name developed into use for both sexes after its surname history. Its spelling family is especially broad, so each written form has a separate American record even when the spoken name sounds the same.

Kacey is pronounced KAY-see, with stress on the first syllable. The first vowel rhymes with day, and the final y has a long ee sound.

Kacey Musgraves and an early breakthrough

Kacey Musgraves won the 2014 Grammy for best country album with Same Trailer Different Park. The record established a public songwriting identity through songs including “Merry Go ’Round” and “Follow Your Arrow.”

At the same 2014 ceremony, “Merry Go ’Round” won best country song. Musgraves shared that songwriting award with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.

The album’s success gave Kacey a visible musical bearer before the later achievements that brought her recognition beyond the country categories.

Her work joins contemporary recording with country songwriting, using closely observed situations and a distinctive personal voice. That combination became especially visible in the reception of her next major Grammy-winning album.

Golden Hour at the Grammys

Golden Hour won Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards as well as best country album. Those two honours placed the same record in both the general album category and its country field.

Musgraves also won best country solo performance for “Butterflies” and best country song for “Space Cowboy,” bringing her total for that ceremony to four awards.

The different categories recognized an album, a performance, and songwriting. Their combination made the 2019 ceremony a particularly significant point in her career.

American popularity

Kacey’s highest annual American female total was 402 in 1991, when it ranked #577. The male total peaked at 220 in 2021, ranking #997.

In 2025 it was given to 211 girls, ranking #1,118, and 182 boys, ranking #1,155. The recent totals are relatively close, showing substantial use for both sexes in this exact spelling.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Wiktionary and Wikipedia material is adapted with attribution under CC BY-SA 4.0 where applicable. American popularity figures use the local Social Security Administration series for this exact spelling; name-sex-year totals below five are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How popular is Kacey?

In 2025, Kacey ranked #1,118 among girls in the United States, with 211 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1952; its largest annual count was 402 in 1991. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.

How common is Kacey?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 15,700
211 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 7,620
0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,118
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
10,892 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kacey sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5003%

Put another way: gather 10,892 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kacey. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kaceys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kacey was born before 1996 — so the typical Kacey is around 29 today.

Median birth year
1996
About 29 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
26.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
39.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
11,961
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 26.4% of all recorded uses (3,158).

Is Kacey rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−23
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+115
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+190
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.16×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
52.5%
Peak was 1991 (402)
Years since peak
34
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
12.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#577
1991

Spellings of Kacey

Kacey is not the most common spelling — Karen is, with 40.7% against Kacey's 0.49%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Kacey is used — girls

Across 2016–2025, Kacey was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 4,545 girls, against 1 in 8,651 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in 50,000).

222 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 4,545
  2. 2Georgia1 in 5,000
  3. 3Maryland1 in 5,882
  4. 4Texas1 in 6,250
  5. 5Michigan1 in 6,667
  6. 6California1 in 7,692
  7. 7New York1 in 7,692
  8. 8Arizona1 in 8,333

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Where Kacey is used — boys

Across 2016–2025, Kacey was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 2,083 boys, against 1 in 11,840 across all states with data. It was least common in Arizona (1 in 100,000).

148 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 2,083
  2. 2Alabama1 in 5,000
  3. 3Louisiana1 in 5,000
  4. 4Georgia1 in 5,556
  5. 5South Carolina1 in 6,667
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 7,692
  7. 7Texas1 in 10,000
  8. 8Virginia1 in 10,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Kacey around the world

Where Kacey ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #2,605
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2000–2025
    #539
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2002–2019
    #336
    in 2019
  • Ireland
    1994–2023
    #555
    in 2023
  • France
    2001–2021
    #3,401
    in 2021
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #597
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1984–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Kacey

People whose public names include Kacey, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Kacey in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Kacey. Linked forms have their own page here.

KaciKacyKacieKasie

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Kacey by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,118
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 115
Best rank ever
#577
1991
Peak year
1991
402 that year
First recorded
1952
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
11,961
Count in 2025
211

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,155
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 31
Best rank ever
#997
2021
Peak year
2021
220 that year
First recorded
1965
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,304
Count in 2025
182

Names similar to Kacey

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KacieKaciMaceyKacyJaceyLaceyKaceeGraceyDarceyTraceyStaceyPaceyKelceyKaciaKacelynDaceyQuinceyMarceyTaceyNanceyKachinaCaceyKacelynnKache

Names with a curve like Kacey

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Kacey, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AmberlyAjaSheaChanelMarielRhiannonCelinaRocioDanaeAshlyMarcelaLacie

Sibling names for Kacey

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Kacey

Top names of 1991, Kacey's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1991Girls' names starting with K