Kimberley
Feminine · “Cyneburg's field”
Kimberley is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 38,043 girls against 235 boys since 1880.
Kimberley is a diamond town in the Northern Cape, named after a British colonial secretary who never went there, whose own title came from a village in Norfolk. The name reached girls by that whole route.
How old is the name Kimberley?
Kimberley first appears in US birth records in 1941 — 84 years ago. The typical Kimberley alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 35,000 people named Kimberley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kimberley most popular?
Kimberley peaked in 1967, reaching #166 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 5,556 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cyneburg + leah to Kimberley
The story of Kimberley
Diamonds were found on the Vaal in 1869, and the mining camp that grew there was renamed in 1873 for the Earl of Kimberley, then colonial secretary — reportedly because the existing name was too hard for officials to spell. The town became famous, and the word entered English-speaking naming: Kimberly in America from the 1940s, the full -ey spelling in Britain, Australia and South Africa. The -ey form peaked in America in the mid-1960s.
Meaningscholars disagree
Cyneburg's field
The English place name behind the title is usually read as the Old English personal name Cyneburg plus leah, 'clearing', giving 'Cyneburg's clearing'. Several English villages of the name have slightly different first elements, so the derivation depends on which one is meant. The South African town carries the title rather than the field.
How the name formed
- Cyneburg + leah
- Kimberley
- Kimberly
Related forms: Kimberly · Kimberlee
Pronouncing Kimberley
KIM-bur-lee
Three syllables, stress on the first. Kimberley and Kimberly are said identically; the extra e is silent.
Nicknames for Kimberley
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
- 1941
- Most girls named
- 19672,003 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #166reached in 1967
- Change vs 2023
- +5.0%21 in 2025, from 20
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.
Kimberley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kimberly in English — spelling variant
- Kimberlee in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Kimberleys among us
people named Kimberley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Kimberley
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 Leola test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kimberley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leola climbed just as high around 1905, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leola's path sketches the road Kimberley is walking now.
Kimberley 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
Kimberley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kimberley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The full spelling is the historically correct one for both the town and the title.
- Kim is a ready-made short form with an independent life.
- Three syllables with a front stress, which holds up well against a short surname.
- Kimberly is far commoner in America and will be assumed by anyone writing it down.
- The chain from field to earl to diamond town to name is long, so the meaning is remote.
- It is closely dated to the 1960s and 1970s.
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What they receive
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Kimberley
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kimberleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 35,000 people named Kimberley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kimberley in 2025?
- Kimberley ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kimberley?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Kimberley — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kimberley with classmates?
- Kimberley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kimberley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kimberley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kimberley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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