Kayce
Masculine · “vigilant”
Kayce is given to both — 3,316 boys and 3,224 girls since 1880. See Kayce as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Kayce is a phonetic American respelling of Casey, a name that began as an Irish surname and crossed the Atlantic with families from Cork and Limerick. Two easy syllables, KAY-see, that land the same way whether shouted across a yard or read off a roster. The spelling is newer than the sound, which has been in English-speaking mouths for well over a century.
How old is the name Kayce?
Kayce first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. Kayce is overwhelmingly a brand-new baby name right now — most Kayces are still in diapers. About 3,300 people named Kayce are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kayce most popular?
Kayce peaked in 2025, reaching #375 nationally. Today it ranks #375, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Kayce appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Cathasach to Kayce
The story of Kayce
Cathasach was an Irish byname before it was anyone's surname; families descended from a man of that name became Ó Cathasaigh, anglicized to Casey. Emigration carried the surname to the United States in the nineteenth century, where, like Kelly, Riley and Ryan, it slid from last name to first. The K-spellings — Kasey, Kayce — belong to a much later American habit of rewriting names phonetically. Kayce in particular has been lifted in recent years by Kayce Dutton, the rancher son at the center of the Paramount Network series Yellowstone, which is also where the name's strength in Texas fits the pattern.
Meaningscholars disagree
vigilant, watchful — by way of the Irish surname Casey
The mainstream reading traces Casey to the Irish Ó Cathasaigh, 'descendant of Cathasach', from cathasach, 'vigilant' or 'watchful'. The K-spelling is also read a second way: as the spoken initials K.C., a nickname pattern long attached to men called Casey and to people with those two initials. Both readings are genuinely in circulation, and the spelling itself does not settle the question.
How the name formed
- Cathasach
- Ó Cathasaigh
- Casey
- Kayce
Related forms: Ó Cathasaigh · Casey · Kasey
Pronouncing Kayce
KAY-see
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling is transparent — almost everyone reads it right the first time, even if they then write it as Casey.
Nicknames for Kayce
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 2025843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #375reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +10.9%843 in 2025, from 760
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Kayce in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Cathasaigh in Irish — related form
- Casey in English — spelling variant
- Kasey in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Kayces among us
people named Kayce are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,026 born in 2025 was named Kayce
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Alphonso test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kayce's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alphonso climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alphonso's path sketches the road Kayce is walking now.
Kayce is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kayce is headed
Kayce is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 182% more babies given the name than today. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kayce beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kayce in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly on sight: KAY-see is what the letters say, so it is rarely mispronounced.
- The sound is long-established through Casey, so it is instantly familiar aloud even where the spelling is not.
- Two syllables, no clusters, and it survives being shouted across a playing field.
- Comes with ready-made short forms — KC, Kay, Case — that are already in real use.
- It will be written as Casey or Kasey by strangers for life. The sound is common; this arrangement of letters is not, so expect a lifetime of spelling it out.
- Much of the recent momentum comes from one television character. Names that ride a single show can date to that era once the show ends — worth knowing, not necessarily worth avoiding.
- Casey is thoroughly unisex in American use, and the sound carries that with it. This spelling leans male in the records, but people meeting the name on paper won't reliably assume either way.
- The name is rare enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate — pleasant for some families, and a small ongoing chore of correction for others.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kayce
Masculine · #375 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kayces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Kayce are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kayce in 2025?
- Kayce ranks #375 among US boy names in 2025, with 843 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kayce?
- About 1 in every 2,026 US boys born in 2025 was named Kayce — 843 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kayce with classmates?
- Kayce will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kayce
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Desmond#376 · Forrest#374 · Hugo#377 · Clark#377 · Grady#373 · Matthias#372 · Manuel#371 · Daxton#379
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kayce? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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