Kyri
Feminine · “lord”
Kyri is given to both — 519 girls and 424 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Kyrie eleison is the only Greek left in the Latin Mass. Everything else was translated and that phrase was not — Lord, have mercy, kept in the original for fifteen hundred years because it was already ancient when Latin took over. Kyri is the short form of a name taken from that phrase, and it has become genuinely current in America in the last fifteen years.
How old is the name Kyri?
Kyri first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Kyri alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 500 people named Kyri are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kyri most popular?
Kyri peaked in 2010, reaching #4180 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 9,028 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kyrios to Kyri
The story of Kyri
The Kyrie is the first sung part of the Mass and the one piece of Greek that survived the switch to Latin in the fourth century; it was kept because congregations already knew it. The word entered American naming very recently, and its rise coincides closely with the career of a widely known basketball player carrying the fuller form — names attached to a visible athlete rise fast and unmistakably, and the record here shows exactly that shape. Kyri is the shortened version, given to boys and girls in nearly equal numbers.
Meaning
lord
From the Greek kyrios, a lord or master, in the vocative form kyrie — the form used when addressing someone. It is the ordinary Greek word for sir as well as the term used for God throughout the Greek New Testament, and it is still what a Greek speaker says to a stranger.
How the name formed
- kyrios
- kyrie
- Kyrie
- Kyri
Related forms: Kyrios · Kyriakos
Pronouncing Kyri
KEER-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The liturgical Kyrie has three — KEE-ree-ay — and the American name has settled on two. Some families say KY-ree with a long first vowel, which is a third option and is heard.
Nicknames for Kyri
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 girls named
- 201035 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4180reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- −40.0%6 in 2025, from 10
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.
Kyri in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kyrios in Greek — related form
- Kyriakos in Greek — related form
Kyris among us
people named Kyri are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Kyri
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kyri
- #13208
- Kyri on the 2025 chart
- #934
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kyri went to 6 girls in 2025, but Kiri is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 26, which makes it the 934th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,274 places above the chart.
- Kiri20
- Kyri6
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Kyri 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 Darlen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kyri's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darlen climbed just as high around 1936, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darlen's path sketches the road Kyri is walking now.
Kyri 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
Kyri beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kyri in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is one word long and takes no explaining.
- It has a genuinely ancient liturgical phrase behind it, still in use every week.
- Four letters, two syllables, and nothing an English reader stumbles over.
- It works for a child of either sex, and the record shows it doing so.
- The first vowel is unsettled between KEER and KY, so the name is introduced rather than read.
- Kyrie and Kyree are both in use, so the spelling has to be dictated.
- It is closely associated with one athlete at present, which will date it.
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What they receive
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Kyri
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kyris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Kyri are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kyri?
- Kyri is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kiri is the more common one — 20 births in 2025 against 6 for Kyri.
- How popular is the name Kyri in 2025?
- Kyri ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kyri?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Kyri — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kyri with classmates?
- Kyri will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kyri
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kyri? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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