Kay
Kay is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 38 births. Its best rank was 70th, in 1941.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 380.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 19423,623 births
- Best rank
- #70in 1941
- Since 1885
- 102,497people given the name
The story in the numbers
98,583 girls have been named Kay in the United States since 1885, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1942, with 3,623 births — 0.27% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 38 births in 2024, against 3,623 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1947, and the 1940s alone account for 33%. It has spent 92 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 10 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 3,914 boys have also been given it, 3.8% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Kay | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 31 | |
| 1890s | 122 | |
| 1900s | 452 | |
| 1910s | 2,173 | |
| 1920s | 2,665 | |
| 1930s | 17,301 | |
| 1940s | 32,654 | |
| 1950s | 24,645 | |
| 1960s | 12,388 | |
| 1970s | 2,518 | |
| 1980s | 1,409 | |
| 1990s | 869 | |
| 2000s | 635 | |
| 2010s | 504 | |
| 2020s | 217 |
In 1942, its biggest year
Kay was the 75th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1942 were Mary, Barbara, Patricia, Linda and Carol. See all of 1942.
Names that rose and fell with Kay
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Marvapeak 1948
- Carolpeak 1946
- Kayepeak 1947
- Carolynpeak 1947
- Maryannpeak 1943
- Janycepeak 1947
- Carollpeak 1946
- Karelpeak 1939
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.