Keith
given name · Latin script
Meaning: person from Keith, Moray, 'place by the wood'
Used for both men and women, depending on the country· national registers that list names by sex disagree
- United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed as male
- Brazil (IBGE, 2022): listed as female
- Spain (INE): listed as male
- Finland (DVV): listed as male
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 47 countries · latest register: SSA, 2025
/kiːθ/(recorded in a dictionary) English · from Wiktionary
Keith is a given name used for both men and women, depending on the country, written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Ireland it is the 61st most common given name.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 450(inferred from the name graph)
- IEIreland≈1 in 460
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 540
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Keith itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #232 (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 634 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 450 (inferred from the name graph)
328,988 people, 2020
of 15M given names, spellings grouped
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts
(measured from records)Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)person from Keith, Moray, 'place by the wood'.
Cited for this meaning 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Keith, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Keith counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #102 | 328,988 | 1 in 1K | 328K | Keith | 634 |
| GB United Kingdom | #76 | ≈150,000 est. | ≈1 in 450 | 13 | Keith | 356 |
| CA Canada | #105 | ≈66,000 est. | ≈1 in 624 | 3 | Keith | 301 |
| AU Australia | #147 | ≈39,000 est. | ≈1 in 692 | 75 | Keith | 282 |
| ZA South Africa | #168 | ≈35,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.8K | — | Keith | 144 |
| HR Croatia | — | 22,615as Kata | 1 in 187 | 23K | — | 1 |
| IE Ireland | #61 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 460 | 6 | Keith | 165 |
| FI Finland | — | 10,946as Kati | 1 in 509 | 12K | — | 38 |
| NZ New Zealand | #79 | ≈9,700 est. | ≈1 in 543 | 10 | Keith | 157 |
328,988 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; DZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Keith is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, Location name from East Lothian; recorded as de Keth in 1185. Possibly from Old Gaelic coit “wood”; may also refer to Banffshire Keith (Kethmalruf c.700).
as a nameScottish Surnames
In English, Scottish placename used first as a surname and then as a first name; now fairly popular in Ireland.
as a nameIrish first names
A Scottish placename, used first as a surname and then as a first name. It has recently become quite popular with Irish parents.
as a nameIrish first names
habitational name from the lands of Keith in East Lothian. In the 17th century numerous bearers of this name settled in Ulster.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, A Scottish surname.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Gilbert Keith Chestertonb. 1874GBEnglish author and Christian apologist (1874–1936)
- Keith Andesb. 1920USAmerican actor (1920–2005)
- Rupert Murdochb. 1931AUnot in their usual nameAmerican businessman
- David Lynchb. 1946USnot in their usual nameAmerican filmmaker (1946–2025)
- Bobby McFerrinb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican jazz vocalist and composer (born 1950)
- Chris Jerichob. 1970USnot in their usual nameAmerican-Canadian professional wrestler (born 1970)
- Keith Fergusonb. 1972USAmerican voice actor (born 1972)
- Randy Ortonb. 1980USnot in their usual nameAmerican professional wrestler (born 1980)
- Keith Andrewsb. 1980IEIrish footballer
- Liam Hemsworthb. 1990AUnot in their usual nameAustralian actor (born 1990)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)91 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 47 countries.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Keith mean, and where does it come from?
- person from Keith, Moray, 'place by the wood'. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- Is Keith a male or female name?
- Keith is used for both men and women, depending on the country. National registers that list names by sex disagree: United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed as male; Brazil (IBGE, 2022): listed as female; Spain (INE): listed as male; Finland (DVV): listed as male. We don't publish a percentage split.
- How common is the name Keith?
- In the United States, the national register counted 328,988 people named Keith in 2020, about 1 in 1.0 thousand residents.
- How common is Keith compared with other names?
- In the United States, Keith is the 102nd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Keith?
- In English /kiːθ/ (Wiktionary).
- In which country does Keith have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 329 thousand people named Keith, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled keith.
What do you want to know about Keith?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/keithThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Keith” — the 102nd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.