Key

loc · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Key is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. Recorded meaning: An object designed to open and close a lock.

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 391K(measured from records)
  • NANamibia≈1 in 33K
  • SESweden1 in 67K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

United States (measured from records)

850 people, 2020

Sources
467 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 33K (inferred from the name graph)

Namibia, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

An object designed to open and close a lock.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Key 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.

Where Key is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States8501 in 391K34KKey467
DE Germany≈210 est.≈1 in 385Klisted—70
IT Italy≈190 est.≈1 in 324K1—24
GB United Kingdom≈180 est.≈1 in 375K—Key191
SE Sweden1521 in 67K152—29
CL Chile≈110 est.≈1 in 171K1—1
NA Namibia≈79 est.≈1 in 33K1—4
CR Costa Rica311 in 164K31——
NZ New Zealand≈16 est.≈1 in 305K—Key79

850 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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names; ECN Government Gazette 8791 — 2025 local authority candidates; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); SRCEI — Nombres más comunes (guaguas, 1920–2021). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Key is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish given name13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Colombia, Timor-Leste, Mexico

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Këy, Kèy, Kêý, Kêy, Kéý

  • Chinese given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Taiwan, China

    Also written Ke-Y

  • French given name9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States

    Also written Kéy, Keÿ, Kèy, Këy, Kęy

  • a separate name5 spellings in the group

    Also written Kéy, Kèy, Ķěý

  • Indonesian name6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia

    Also written Këy, Kéy, Ķéý, Kêÿ

70 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Key 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, different form of Kay

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

  • In English, , jigi, ju, jiwi; plu., def. st:, jiwisia ; also je- wisia

    as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language

  • reduced form of McKay.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In Khmer, to embezzle, to steal, to cheat. (id.) cm

    as a wordHeadley, Cambodian-English Dictionary, Volume I (ក-ភ)

  • In Chinese, to superimpose (an image, typically that of a person) onto another image

    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)

1700180019002000Francis Scott Key, b. 1779Ellen Key, b. 1849Key Pittman, b. 1872Francis Scott Fitzgerald, b. 1896Alexander Key, b. 1904John Key, b. 1961Keegan-Michael Key, b. 1971James Key, b. 1972Tim Key, b. 1976Ki Sung-yueng, b. 1989

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).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 50 sources across 26 countries.

Official registers attesting Key
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201034K#1,037
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200032K#999
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202032K#1,083
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—111#6,655
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 6

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Key mean, and where does it come from?
An object designed to open and close a lock. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Key have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 850 people named Key, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled key.
How common is the name Key?
In the United States, the national register counted 850 people named Key in 2020, about 1 in 391 thousand residents.

What do you want to know about Key?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/key

The same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Key”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Key parses inside a full name →