Kelly

See also: kelly

English

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• Kelley
• (female given name): Kelli, Kellie

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛli/
• Rhymes: -ɛli

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Proper noun

Kelly (countable and uncountable, plural Kellies)

1. A surname from Irish, Anglicised from the Irish Ó Ceallaigh.
   • 1867, Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald, The Life of David Garrick, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, published 1899, page 319:

     A better and more straightforward appeal, though less cool, was made to him by Hugh Kelly, - - - The play was so successful, and Garrick said so much of it that Lord Pembroke was eager to be back from Paris to see it, though he said, with true aristocratic pride, that he could expect very little from such a name as "Kelly", especially if there be an "O'" before it.

2. A unisex given name transferred from the surname
   1. A male given name transferred from the surname.
   2. A female given name transferred from the surname, popular from the 1960s to the 1990s.
      • 1986, Daphne Merkin, chapter 1986, in Enchantment, Harcourt Brace Jovanovi, →ISBN, page 207:

        On the walls of the salon are blown-up photos of models with dazzling teeth and ingeniously tousled hair - women with names like Kelly and Dawn, who come from tiny towns in Texas and Washington, who are tall and thin, and who don't appear to be burdened by any pasts to speak of.

3. A placename
   1. A number of places in the United States:
      1. An unincorporated community in Nemaha County, Kansas.
      2. An unincorporated community in Christian County, Kentucky.
      3. An unincorporated community in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana.
      4. A census-designated place in Bladen County, North Carolina.
      5. A township in Union County, Pennsylvania.
      6. An unincorporated community in Collin County, Texas.
      7. An unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia.
      8. A town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
      9. An unincorporated community in Clearfield, Juneau County, Wisconsin.
      10. A census-designated place in Teton County, Wyoming.
   2. A small village and civil parish (without a council) in West Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SX3981).
   3. A locality on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, Australia.

Derived terms

• Kelly Bray
• Kelly cytoscope
• Kelly pad
• Ned Kelly

 

Translations

female given name

• Esperanto: Kelli
• French: Kelly (fr)
• Greek: Κέλλυ (el) (Kélly)
• Japanese: ケリー (Kerī)
• Russian: Келли (ru) (Kelli)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English Kelly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛ.li/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Kel‧ly

Proper noun

Kelly f

1. a unisex given name