The KELLY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	260,385	69	0.097	965
United States (1880 census)	72,857	44	0.146	1,457
Change since 1880	+187528	-25	-0.049	-492
Other Countries
Australia	25,014	19	0.153	1,530
United Kingdom	74,527	50	0.162	1,623

Top States for KELLY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
New York	20,384	32	0.107	1,074
California	18,559	135	0.055	548
Florida	18,322	63	0.115	1,146
Pennsylvania	17,623	26	0.143	1,435
Texas	13,343	160	0.064	640
Top States for KELLY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Massachusetts	10,626	18	0.167	1,674
South Carolina	6,349	63	0.158	1,583
Pennsylvania	17,623	26	0.143	1,435
Mississippi	3,991	77	0.140	1,403
New Jersey	11,509	24	0.137	1,368

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called KELLY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called KELLY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called KELLY in New York than any other state, but you are more likely to find a KELLY by picking someone at random in Massachusetts than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of KELLY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Ireland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the KELLY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the KELLY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of KELLY in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	209,324	80.39
Black/African American	40,308	15.48
White (Hispanic)	4,505	1.73
Mixed Race	3,515	1.35
Asian/Pacific	1,276	0.49
Native American/Alaskan	1,432	0.55

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the KELLY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of KELLY in historical publications

KELLY. KELLEY. The Kelleys were in old times resident in the parish of that name in Devonshire, and the Irish Kellys, now very numerous, bear the same arms. According to the genenlogy in B.L.G., the Kellys of Kelly " may look back beyond the Conquest and derive themselves from the ancient Britons !" Mr. Shirley says: " Kelly is a manor in the hundred of Lifton, about six miles from Tavistock. The manor and advowson have been in the family at least from the thue of Henry II, and here they have uninterruptedly resided since that very early period." Noble and Gentle Men, p. 59. Tlie similar name Kellie is a diminutive of Charles. See Kell.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

(origin: Gaelic and Welsh.) A grove, generally of hazel. Kill or Cille, in the Gaelic and Celtic, denotes a church.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

Similar names to KELLY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as KELLY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.