Kimberely
Feminine · “the clearing belonging to Cyneburg”
Kimberley, the place, ends in l-e-y. Kimberly, the name, dropped the e. Kimberely puts it back but on the wrong side of the l, which means the spelling is neither the place nor the standard name but a transposition sitting between them.
How old is the name Kimberely?
Kimberely first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Kimberely alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 2,100 people named Kimberely are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kimberely most popular?
Kimberely peaked in 1965, reaching #908 nationally. See the whole 1965 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cyneburg to Kimberely
The story of Kimberely
That woman is worth pausing on, because English place names rarely record one. The overwhelming majority of settlements named for a person in England are named for a man, and the pattern is so consistent that the exceptions get noticed. Cyneburg was a name in ordinary use among Anglo-Saxon women, its elements meaning something like royal fortress, and at least two separate English villages carry it in this compound. So a modern Kimberly is wearing, at several removes and with no idea of it, the name of an Anglo-Saxon woman who owned or lived beside a wood. The extra e in this spelling is an accident, but it does at least point back toward the fuller form the place still uses.
Meaning
the clearing belonging to Cyneburg
The English places called Kimberley are named for a woman: an Old English personal name, Cyneburg, joined to the element meaning a clearing or wood. The name therefore already contained a woman's name for a thousand years before anyone gave it to a daughter.
How the name formed
- Cyneburg
- Kimberley
- Kimberly
- Kimberely
Pronouncing Kimberely
KIM-ber-lee
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The transposed e adds nothing audible, so the spelling and the standard one are indistinguishable when spoken.
Nicknames for Kimberely
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
- 1952
- Most girls named
- 1970126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #908reached in 1965
- Change vs 2005
- −16.7%5 in 2006, from 6
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.
Kimberelys among us
people named Kimberely are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Kimberely sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Kim is one of the most useful short forms in English and works in any register.
- The name is completely familiar in sound and needs no introduction.
- The full spelling is rare enough to be distinctive on paper.
- The letters will be transposed back to the standard spelling constantly.
- It is firmly attached to the generation of its peak and carries that age.
- The extra length adds nothing that can be heard, only something to be corrected.
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Kimberely
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kimberelys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Kimberely are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kimberely in 2025?
- Kimberely is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kimberely with classmates?
- Kimberely will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kimberely? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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