Kelsie
Feminine · “Cepel's island”
Kelsie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 19,591 girls against 345 boys since 1880.
Kelsie is a Lincolnshire village respelled twice. Cepel's island became the surname Kelsey, which became a girls' name, which then acquired an -ie ending.
How old is the name Kelsie?
Kelsie first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Kelsie alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 19,000 people named Kelsie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kelsie most popular?
Kelsie peaked in 1993, reaching #230 nationally. Today it ranks #2239, 2,009 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cepel + eg to Kelsie
The story of Kelsie
Kelsey is an English place and surname, and it crossed into American given-name use in the twentieth century — for boys first, in small numbers, and then decisively for girls in the 1980s. The respellings followed at once: Kelsey, Kelsie, Kelsi, Kelcie. Kelsie peaked in the mid-1990s, a few years behind the standard spelling.
Meaningscholars disagree
Cepel's island
From the Lincolnshire place names North and South Kelsey, generally read as an Old English personal name plus eg, 'island' or 'dry ground in marsh'. The personal name is disputed. A second reading takes the surname from ceol, 'ship', plus sige, 'victory'. The eg element is the securer part.
How the name formed
- Cepel + eg
- Kelsey
- Kelsie
Related forms: Kelsey · Kelsi · Kelcie
Pronouncing Kelsie
KEL-see
Two syllables, stress on the first. All the spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Kelsie
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
- 1908
- Most girls named
- 19921,116 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #230reached in 1993
- Change vs 2024
- +2.5%82 in 2025, from 80
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.
Kelsie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kelsey in English — spelling variant
- Kelsi in English — spelling variant
- Kelcie in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Kelsies among us
people named Kelsie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 19,601 born in 2025 was named Kelsie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kelsie
- #2239
- Kelsie on the 2025 chart
- #862
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kelsie went to 82 girls in 2025, but Kelcie is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 98, which makes it the 862nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,377 places above the chart.
- Kelsie82
- Kelcie16
About 1 girl in 16,401 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 19,601 for Kelsie itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Mona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kelsie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mona climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mona's path sketches the road Kelsie is walking now.
Kelsie sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kelsie is headed
Kelsie is easing off slowly — about 18% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Kelsie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kelsie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English place name with a transparent second element.
- The -ie ending reads warmer than -ey or -i without changing the sound.
- Bright and quick, with no pronunciation risk.
- Kelsey is much the commoner spelling and will be assumed.
- The first element of the place name is genuinely disputed.
- It is closely dated to the 1990s in American records.
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What they receive
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Kelsie
Feminine · #2239 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kelsies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 19,000 people named Kelsie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kelsie?
- Kelsie is the most-used spelling in US records — 82 of the 98 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kelcie.
- How popular is the name Kelsie in 2025?
- Kelsie ranks #2239 among US girl names in 2025, with 82 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kelsie?
- About 1 in every 19,601 US girls born in 2025 was named Kelsie — 82 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kelsie with classmates?
- Kelsie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kelsie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Naiomi#2239 · Mirabelle#2239 · Desire#2239 · Jazmyn#2239 · Jaelani#2239 · Bracha#2239 · Collette#2239 · Effie#2239
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kelsie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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