Given name & surname · also Germanic
Kemi
“easily accessible or passable”
Kemi is a surname from Proto-Germanic (ultimately Proto-Finno-Permic). It is used in Finnish.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Kemi goes back to Proto-Germanic *kwēmijaz, meaning “easily accessible or passable.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Kemi comes from Proto-Germanic, and ultimately from Proto-Finno-Permic.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Proto-Germanic *kwēmijaz (“easily accessible or passable”), from Proto-Finno-Permic *käme.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1961. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Kemi through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 383
- 0 boys · 383 girls
- Most popular year
- 2022
- 17 babies
- 2025
- 7
- #12,549 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +50%
- Rising fast
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 7 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 12,549 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 743 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Kemi’s family of names
Kemi may belong to the same name family as KEMMI. This is a tentative spelling connection.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 3
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Kemi
- Kemi BadenochBritish politician and Leader of the Opposition to the British Government (2024–present) and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2024 (born 1980)
- Kemi AdetibaNigerian music video directorborn 1980
- Kemi Lala AkindojuNigerian actressborn 1987
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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