Kelly

Where the name comes from

• Irish (Gaelic), via the surname
  from the personal name Ceallach, glossed ‘war, strife, contention’
  Irish surname Ó Ceallaigh ‘descendant of Ceallach’ (anglicized O’Kelly, Kelly, Kelley); Old Irish ceallach
  Etymonline: “common Irish surname, from Old Irish ceallach "war."” Woulfe (1923) glosses Ceallach as “war” or “strife”. Some modern references reportedly treat the meaning of Ceallach as uncertain, also proposing “bright-headed” or “monastery church”; this is still to be checked against Hanks et al. Kelly passed from surname to given name in the 20th century: in the SSA decade tables it appears first as a boys’ name (1950s) and from the 1960s mainly as a girls’ name.
• English (place-name surname; minor)
  from the place Kelly in Devon
  English toponymic surname from the manor and parish of Kelly, near Tavistock, Devon
  Recorded by Lower (1860) as a separate English surname. It is not the usual source of the modern given name.

Kelly across traditions

• Gaelic Ireland. Ceallach was “an ancient and once very common Irish name” borne by at least three saints, including St. Celsus (Ceallach), Archbishop of Armagh, who died in 1129 (Woulfe). The Ó Ceallaigh were several distinct families. The best known were chiefs of Uí Maine in Galway and Roscommon until the reign of Elizabeth I; their chief Tadhg Mór Ó Ceallaigh fell at Clontarf in 1014 (Woulfe).
• English-speaking world (surname to given name; unisex). Historically masculine and now mostly feminine in the US. Boys appear first in the SSA decade tables: #200 in the 1950s, #123 in the 1960s, #153 in the 1970s. Girls’ use takes over from the 1960s (#30). Overall 89.6% of the combined births are girls. The word also names a shade of green, kelly green (first recorded 1917).
• United States (SSA). Combined births in the seven SSA decade tables, Kelly + Kelli + Kellie, girls and boys: 563,198 (girls 504,737; boys 58,461). Peak decade: 1970s, at #14 for girls (Kelly 133,545); with boys’ Kelly #153 (17,321), Kelli #138 (21,540) and Kellie #194 (13,669) the total is 186,075. Girls’ Kelly: #30 (1960s), #14 (1970s), #29 (1980s), #60 (1990s), #158 (2000s); not in the 2010s top 200.

Who carried it

• St. Celsus (Ceallach), Archbishop of Armagh (died April 1, 1129): Best-known saint called Ceallach; died at Ardpatrick in Munster.
• Tadhg Mór Ó Ceallaigh (died 1014): Chief of the Ó Ceallaigh of Uí Maine; fell at the Battle of Clontarf.

Forms in other languages

Kelli, Kellie, Kelley, Ceallach, Kellagh, Cellachus, Kellachus

Kelly in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.