Meaning & origin
What it means
Kiely goes back to Irish Ó Cadhla, meaning “descendant of Cadhla.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1969. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Kiely through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 849
- 0 boys · 849 girls
- Most popular year
- 2008
- 52 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #16,178 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −50%
- Cooling
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 16,178 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for girls was 52 in 2008. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 812 as a first name in 2020; 2,833 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Kiely’s family of names
In English usage, Kiely as a surname has a related form in Keeley.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 4
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Kiely
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Kiely, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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“one who is pure; virginal”
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