Name Awesome

Kealy

Girls' name

Descendant of Caollaidhe, through Keeley

Kealy has been given to 422 babies in the U.S. since 1971. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2000, with 24 recorded.

Babies named Kealy, 2015

1 in 529,000

Kealy over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kealy: meaning, origin, and history

Descendant of Caollaidhe, through Keeley

surname transfer

What Kealy means

Kealy belongs to the name family reached through Kealy → Keeley. Its meaning is “descendant of Caollaidhe”.

Origin, language, and formation

Kealy is used in English. Its origins include surname transfer.

Kealy is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Keeley.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 422 girls were recorded with the name Kealy between 1971 and 2015. Its highest annual count was 24 in 2000; its best national rank was #4,732 in 1997.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Kealy?

Kealy had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2015, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2015
1 in 529,000
7 of 3,701,574 births
Among girls only
1 in 255,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2015
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
366,535 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kealy 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 2015 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 366,535 children born in 2015 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kealy. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kealys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kealy was born before 1999 — so the typical Kealy is around 26 today.

Median birth year
1999
About 26 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
37.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
76.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
422
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 37.0% of all recorded uses (156).

Is Kealy 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 2000 (24)
Years since peak
25
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,732
1997

Spellings of Kealy

Kealy is not the most common spelling — Kelly is, with 47.8% against Kealy's 0.04%.

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.

Kealy around the world

Where Kealy 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
    1996–2005
    #3,970
    in 2005
  • Scotland
    1995–1995
    #639
    in 1995
  • Canada
    1996–1998
    #2,262
    in 1998
  • South Australia
    1997–2009
    #818
    in 2009

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Kealy by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,732
1997
Peak year
2000
24 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2015
All-time count
422
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kealy

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

KeariKeaniKealaKeariaKeatynKealaniKearieKeanaKeanuKeatonAdalyKealeyIdalyKeasiaKeaganRosalyKeaunaNaralyAnnalyEmmalyKeashaKearraAmalyKeary

Sibling names for Kealy

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 Kealy

Top names of 2000, Kealy's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1997Girls' names starting with K