Keli

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Keli is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name66K records spelled Keli13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, India

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Ke-Li, Kéli, Kelí, Kelî

• a separate given name2.7K records spelled Keli4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, China, United Kingdom

  Also written Ke-Li, Kelī, Kéli

• French given name1.7K records spelled Keli3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Spain, Côte d’Ivoire

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Kéli

• Indonesian given name1.4K records spelled Keli3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Indonesia, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Kéli

• Albanian given name490 records spelled Keli3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Albania, Italy, United States

  Also written Këli, Kêlï

46 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Keli is also recorded in 6 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Tongan, to dig; to dig up (but when speaking of yams , _keli_ is ‘to plant’)

  as a word·Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

• In fj, obsolete spelling of keri (“to dig”)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Finnish, weather conditions relating specifically to surfaces for travel (such as road conditions or skiing conditions)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Icelandic, a diminutive of the male given names Þorkell or Hrafnkell

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Tongan, to dig (to move hard-packed earth out of the way)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In ncn, small to medium-sized groupers

  as a word·Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 90 years between 1918–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Keli McGregorb. 1963USPlayer of American football (1963-2010)
• Keli Hanb. 1963CNChinese researcher
• Keli Corpseb. 1974CACanadian ice hockey player and coach
• Keli Laneb. 1975AUAustralian convicted murderer
• Keli Goffb. 1979USAmerican writer
• Keli Smith Puzob. 1979USAmerican field hockey player
• Keli Priceb. 1990USAmerican actor and musician
• Souleyman Doumbiab. 1996FRnot in their usual nameIvorian-French footballer
• Keli M. HawthorneUSresearcher
• Keli Mahoneymusher

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 392 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Keli?

We estimate roughly 24 thousand people bear Keli (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Keli have the most bearers?

We estimate about 20 thousand people bear Keli in Brazil, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled keli.

Where is Keli most common?

Keli is densest in Brazil, where the national register counts about 1 in 11 thousand people carrying it.

How common is Keli compared with other names?

In Brazil, Keli is the 970th most common given name of 536,280 given names recorded there.

Is Keli a male or female name?

Keli is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.