Koy
Masculine
Koy is given to both — 945 boys and 34 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Koy is short and has more than one possible parent. Coy is an English surname from a Norman French word for quiet or still; Koy is also a Korean and Thai syllable and a Dutch surname. In American records the name appears chiefly in the South, where short one-syllable names have long been ordinary.
How old is the name Koy?
Koy first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Koy alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 900 people named Koy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Koy most popular?
Koy peaked in 1997, reaching #1964 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 3,244 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From coi to Koy
The story of Koy
Bynames about temperament were common in medieval England, and coi, quiet, gave the surname Coy. It crossed to America and became a first name, particularly in Texas and the southern states, where Coy was well used through the twentieth century. Koy is the k respelling, which belongs to the last few decades and does what k respellings always do: it keeps the sound and marks the name as chosen.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Not settled. The English surname Coy comes from Old French coi, quiet or still, and gave a byname for a reserved person. Koy with a k appears in Dutch and in several Asian languages as an unrelated syllable. Most American Koys are respellings of Coy, and the meaning is the same.
How the name formed
- coi
- Coy
- Koy
Related forms: Coy · Coi
Pronouncing Koy
KOY
One syllable, rhyming with boy. There is no other reading.
Nicknames for Koy
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
- 1970
- Most boys named
- 199746 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1964reached in 1997
- Change vs 2024
- −45.5%18 in 2025, from 33
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.
Koy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Coy in English — spelling variant
- Coi in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Louisiana, Idaho.
Koys among us
people named Koy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Koy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Koy
- #5208
- Koy on the 2025 chart
- #708
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Koy went to 18 boys in 2025, but Coy, Koi and Khoi and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 222, which makes it the 708th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,500 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 7,694 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,893 for Koy itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Renald test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Koy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Renald climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Renald's path sketches the road Koy is walking now.
Koy 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
Koy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Koy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters make it as short as a written name can be.
- It cannot be mispronounced by anyone who reads English.
- It has a documented southern American record under the Coy spelling.
- Coy is the older spelling and the English word coy is a near-homophone with an unhelpful meaning.
- A one-syllable name gives nothing to shorten and no change of register.
- Koy, Coy and Kai are close enough in American speech to be confused.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Koy
Masculine · #5208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Koys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Koy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Koy?
- Koy is one of 5 recorded spellings. Coy is the more common one — 123 births in 2025 against 18 for Koy.
- How popular is the name Koy in 2025?
- Koy ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Koy?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Koy — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Koy with classmates?
- Koy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Koy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Koy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Koy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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