During the first half of the 20th century, the name Kelly was more of a boy name than a girl name. That is, it was given far more often to baby boys than to baby girls.
But things changed in the 1950s, when the overall usage of Kelly began to rise quickly — and rise faster for girls than for boys. The first year that more girls than boys were named Kelly was 1957:
| Girls named Kelly | Boys named Kelly | |
| 1959 | 6,379 (rank: 74th) | 2,436 (rank: 142nd) |
| 1958 | 4,471 (rank: 108th) | 2,299 (rank: 148th) |
| 1957 | 1,907 (rank: 187th) | 1,868 (rank: 167th) |
| 1956 | 831 (rank: 310th) | 1,472 (rank: 189th) |
| 1955 | 540 (rank: 380th) | 1,251 (rank: 204th) |
| 1954 | 455 (rank: 406th) | 960 (rank: 225th) |
| 1953 | 226 (rank: 590th) | 845 (rank: 232nd) |
Even though the gender switch happened in 1957, usage for boys continued to rise for several more years. Only in 1962 then did the two trajectories finally start to diverge.
So what’s behind both the popularization and feminization of the name Kelly in the 1950s? There seem to be at least three different influences (and possibly others that I haven’t discovered yet). Here’s what I’ve got so far:
- Grace Kelly: actress, most popular around 1955/1956
- Kelly and Me: movie, released in 1957
- Bachelor Father: television show, aired from 1957 to 1962
I have a big post about Grace Kelly-inspired baby names scheduled for tomorrow, so for now I’ll just say that, if she was an influence here, she wouldn’t be the first famous actress to inspire parents to start using her surname as a girl name. Before her was Janet Gaynor, June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Debra Paget, Denise Darcel, Pier Angeli, etc.
The movie Kelly and Me, which co-starred Piper Laurie, is weirdly reminiscent of the 2008 movie Marley and Me. Both films feature a male dog as a main character, and both titular names saw increased usage as baby names — particularly girl names — the years the movies were released. Apparently neither the species nor the gender of the character mattered much to parents. (Here’s the popularity graph for Marley.)
The TV show Bachelor Father focused on a wealthy Beverly Hills attorney named Bentley Gregg who is raising his orphaned teenage niece, a female Kelly. The show clearly gave the name Bentley a boost in the late ’50s and early ’60s, nudging it into the top 1,000 for the first time in 1961, so no doubt it also helped American audiences see Kelly as a nice name for a daughter.
Do you like the name Kelly? Do you like it more as a girl name or as a boy name? (Or does it not matter to you?)
I much prefer it as a boys name, it just doesnt sound girly to me if I take away context and people I know with that name.
Personally right now I find it a fresh option for boys, and dated for girls. But I doubt it’ll ever make a boomerang resurgence, parents of boys are just looking for the next shiny new name, rather than trying to rescue feminized names.
I agree — I don’t see Kelly becoming popular in the near future, for boys or for girls. But trends are cyclical, so at some point Kelly will inevitably seem shiny and new again. I think at that point (a generation or two in the future?) it could come back. And if it does comes back, it’ll be very interesting to see whether Kelly re-emerges as feminine, masculine, or unisex.
I wonder what caused the Kelly uptick in 1977?
@Bryan – Kelly was one of the “angels” on the TV series Charlie’s Angels, which premiered in 1976. She was the one played by Jaclyn Smith.