Kim
Masculine
Kim is given to both — 34,951 boys and 179,817 girls since 1880. See Kim as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Kim was a boy's name before it was anything else. Kipling published a novel in 1901 about an orphan in colonial India who goes by that one syllable, and for the next fifty years that was where English-speaking families got it.
How old is the name Kim?
Kim first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Kim alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 25,500 people named Kim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kim most popular?
Kim peaked in 1955, reaching #98 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,597 places below that high. See the whole 1955 chart.
Kim appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Kimball to Kim
The story of Kim
Kipling's Kim is Kimball O'Hara, an Irish soldier's son growing up on the streets of Lahore, and the book was read everywhere in the English-speaking world. Boys named Kim appear in American records from the 1920s onward. Scandinavia arrived at the same syllable independently, by clipping Joakim, and Kim is an ordinary man's name in Denmark and Sweden to this day. American masculine use peaked in the mid-1950s, just as the feminine use was overtaking it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The masculine name has two unrelated sources and neither yields a word. In Kipling's novel it is the character's own shortening of the Irish surname Kimball. In Scandinavia, Kim is the standard short form of Joakim — the Hebrew Yehoyakim, 'the Lord raises up' — which does have a meaning, but only by that route.
How the name formed
- Kimball
- Kim
Related forms: Kim · Kim · Kim · Kim
Pronouncing Kim
KIM
One syllable, said the same way everywhere. Korean and Vietnamese use the identical spelling for words of their own, unrelated by descent.
Nicknames for Kim
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 19553,490 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #98reached in 1955
- Change vs 2023
- −33.3%6 in 2025, from 9
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.
Kim in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kim in Danish — same name
- Kim in Swedish — same name
- Kim in Korean — same name
- Kim in Vietnamese — same name
Kims among us
people named Kim are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Kim
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 Roland test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kim's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roland climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roland's path sketches the road Kim is walking now.
Kim 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
Kim beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kim in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters that work in European and East Asian contexts alike, which very few Western names manage.
- It is a standard masculine name in Denmark and Sweden, so it has a living tradition outside English.
- One syllable, unmistakable in any accent or over any connection.
- In America the name reads as feminine to most people, whatever its history.
- It carries no meaning of its own unless Joakim stands behind it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kim
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kims are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 25,500 people named Kim are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kim in 2025?
- Kim ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kim?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Kim — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kim with classmates?
- Kim will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kim
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kim? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kim and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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