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Girl or boy · English
Kim
Say it: KIM
Meaning
Originally a short form of Kimberley (an English place name, 'Cyneburg's clearing'); Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim (1901) used it for a boy.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
A boys' name after Kipling's novel, it became mostly a girls' name in the US from the 1950s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1960s
In the United States
- 214,528 babies given this name since 1912
- At its height in 1960, about 1 in 162 girls
- 47 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Kym
Famous bearers
- Kim Novak, American actress
- Kim Basinger, American actress
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.