Kimbra
Feminine
Almost no English name ends in bra. The cluster is perfectly sayable and almost entirely unused, which is why Kimbra sounds invented even though every sound in it is ordinary: it fills a gap in the language rather than following a pattern.
How old is the name Kimbra?
Kimbra first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Kimbra alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 1,100 people named Kimbra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kimbra most popular?
Kimbra peaked in 1959, reaching #1337 nationally. See the whole 1959 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kimbra
The place at the bottom of this name left the largest hole ever dug by hand. When diamonds were found on a South African farm, tens of thousands of men with picks and buckets worked a single hill down and then kept going, each man on his own claim a few meters square, with rope-and-pulley gear strung across the pit and the claims collapsing into one another as they deepened. By the time it was abandoned the excavation was nearly half a kilometre across and hundreds of meters deep, and it had been made without a single machine. The town that grew around it was named after a British colonial secretary who never saw it, the name came into English use as a girl's name a few decades later, and by the time American families were building new names on it none of that was attached to the sound at all.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The front is from Kimberly, itself a South African place name and before that an English one, and the ending is an American addition with no source. Since the front is a place and the back is a shape, the name has no meaning to give, which is the ordinary condition of a mid-century American build.
Pronouncing Kimbra
KIM-bruh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The b and the r split across the syllable break, which is the only way English allows the pair, and the final vowel is reduced to nothing.
Nicknames for Kimbra
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
- 1951
- Most girls named
- 196168 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1337reached in 1959
- Change vs 2013
- −44.4%5 in 2015, 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.
Kimbras among us
people named Kimbra 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
Kimbra 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
- Short, firm and easy to spell once heard, with no silent letters.
- Kim is a complete, established name sitting in the front half.
- It is genuinely distinctive without containing a single unfamiliar sound.
- The ending is an English word in its own right, and children will find it.
- Kimbra, Kimbrah and Kimbre all exist, so spelling it out is likely.
- There is no meaning to give a child who asks, only a diamond town.
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Kimbra
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kimbras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Kimbra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kimbra in 2025?
- Kimbra is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kimbra with classmates?
- Kimbra 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 Kimbra? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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