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Keefe

Boys' name

Irish surname transferred into given-name use

Keefe has been given to 658 babies in the U.S. since 1952. 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 1963, with 33 recorded.

Babies named Keefe, 2012

1 in 732,000

Keefe over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Keefe: meaning, origin, and history

Irish surname transferred into given-name use

Irish surname transfer

What Keefe means

Keefe is a given name.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Keefe is used in English (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈkif/ for Keefe.

The naming story behind Keefe

Keefe is a given name adopted from Irish surname. This establishes the immediate naming route. A surname transfer is different from a direct translation of the modern given-name spelling; the family name may have its own earlier derivation.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 658 boys were recorded with the name Keefe between 1952 and 2012. Its highest annual count was 33 in 1963; its best national rank was #1,364 in 1963.

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.

How common is Keefe?

Keefe had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2012, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2012
1 in 732,000
5 of 3,657,590 births
Among boys only
1 in 379,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2012
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
507,051 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Keefe sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2012 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 507,051 children born in 2012 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Keefe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Keefes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Keefe was born before 1980 — so the typical Keefe is around 45 today.

Median birth year
1980
About 45 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
21.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
36.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
658
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 21.6% of all recorded uses (142).

Is Keefe 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 1963 (33)
Years since peak
62
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
39.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,364
1963

Spellings of Keefe

Keefe is not the most common spelling — Reece is, with 41.6% against Keefe's 1.2%.

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 Keefe is used

Across 1910–2025, Keefe was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,537,827 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —

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. Keefe has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Keefe around the world

Where Keefe 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
    1998–1998
    #2,901
    in 1998
  • Ireland
    1990–1990
    #323
    in 1990
  • Canada
    2004–2004
    #2,269
    in 2004
  • South Australia
    1988–1988
    #476
    in 1988

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

Keefe by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,364
1963
Peak year
1963
33 that year
First recorded
1952
Last recorded
2012
All-time count
658
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Keefe

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

KeeneKeeanKeetonKeeonKeelinKeevinKeeghanKeenonKeelanKeenenKeeferKeegenKeenaKeelynKeevonKeeranKeelenKeenEfeKeevanKeeKeesKeelonKeenan

Sibling names for Keefe

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 Keefe

Top names of 1963, Keefe's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1963Boys' names starting with K