How popular is the name Kay?

Kay ranks 335th among girls' names in US records, with 116,437 births since 1885. Over the past decade it accounts for 575.

Is Kay a unisex name?

No. Kay is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.

1942, when 4,020 children were given the name. It has been in use for 140 years and is still recorded as of 2024.

Kaye, Cay. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.

Girl name#335 of girl names

Pronounced K EY1 (ARPABET)

Kay is a girls' name, and first appears in 1885. It has been given to 116,437 children — the 335th most common girls' name on record.

Its use has been broadly flat across the past two decades. Its best single year was 1942, when 4,020 children were given it.

Two other spellings are counted in that total — Kaye and Cay — because they are pronounced identically.

1942Girls: 4,020Boys: 96

These spellings sound identical to Kay and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.

Phonetic detail

Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.

Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.

Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.

How popular is the name Kay?: Kay ranks 335th among girls' names in US records, with 116,437 births since 1885. Over the past decade it accounts for 575.
Is Kay a unisex name?: No. Kay is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
When was Kay most popular?: 1942, when 4,020 children were given the name. It has been in use for 140 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
How else is Kay spelled?: Kaye, Cay. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.