Boy · Scottish place name
Kyle
Say it: KYL
Meaning
From a Scottish surname taken from the district of Kyle in Ayrshire; the district name is often derived from Gaelic caol 'narrow, strait', but this is not settled.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
A rare first name until the 1940s, it became a top-30 American boys' name in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1990s
In the United States
- 490,737 babies given this name since 1881
- At its height in 1990, about 1 in 90 boys
- 1,090 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Kile
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- 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.