Kimberly
Masculine · “Cyneburg's clearing”
Kimberly is given to girls far more often — 846,393 girls against 4,273 boys since 1880. See Kimberly as a girl name
Kimberley was a diamond town named after an earl. The rush of eighteen seventy-one dug the largest hand-excavated hole in the world, and the settlement was named for the Colonial Secretary, Lord Kimberley — whose title came from an English village, whose name came from an Old English woman called Cyneburg. The name went from a woman to a place and back.
How old is the name Kimberly?
Kimberly first appears in US birth records in 1940 — 85 years ago. The typical Kimberly alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 3,600 people named Kimberly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kimberly most popular?
Kimberly peaked in 1955, reaching #553 nationally. See the whole 1955 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cyneburg to Kimberly
The story of Kimberly
The siege of Kimberley in the Boer War put the town's name in every English-language newspaper for four months, which is how a South African mining settlement became familiar to families who would never see it. American use as a given name follows, slowly at first and then in enormous volume in the middle of the last century. Almost none of that had anything to do with diamonds; the name simply sounded right. The Old English woman at the far end of the chain has been invisible for a thousand years.
Meaningscholars disagree
Cyneburg's clearing
The English villages called Kimberley are generally read as the clearing or wood of a person named Cyneburg or Cynebald — Old English leah, a clearing, after a personal name. Cyneburg itself joins cyne, royal, with burg, fortress. Which person and which village is not settled, and different Kimberleys have different readings. What is documented is the chain: village to earldom to South African town to American given name.
How the name formed
- Cyneburg
- Kimberley
- Kimberly
Pronouncing Kimberly
KIM-bur-lee
KIM-bur-lee, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle reduced. Kimberly and Kimberley are said identically; the extra e is the British and South African spelling of the place and the shorter one is the American name.
Nicknames for Kimberly
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
- 1940
- Most boys named
- 1955177 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #553reached in 1955
- Change vs 2019
- 0.0%6 in 2021, 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.
Kimberlys among us
people named Kimberly 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
Kimberly 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
- The chain from an Old English name to a diamond town is documented at every link.
- Kim is a complete working short form that needs no explanation anywhere.
- Three syllables with a firm front stress, which carries a short surname well.
- It is said correctly on first sight everywhere in the English-speaking world.
- A very great many people carry it, so a Kimberly will rarely be the only Kim in a room.
- Kimberley with the extra e is standard outside America and the spelling gets corrected both ways.
- It is strongly associated with the second half of the last century and dates a person fairly closely.
- This spelling is recorded for boys too, though so rarely that a boy named Kimberly will be read as a girl on every form.
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What they receive
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Kimberly
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Kimberlys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,600 people named Kimberly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kimberly in 2025?
- Kimberly is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Kimberly with classmates?
- Kimberly will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Kenneth#294 · Kevin#221 · Kyle#508 · Keith#800 · Karl#1585 · Kaleb#295 · Kurt#2258 · Kelly#1867
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kimberly? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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