Kim
- Pronunciation
- [Kim]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Gold, Golden
- Origin
- Vietnamese
About the Name Kim
As a feminine given name in American usage, Kim functions primarily as a short form or independent name with roots in multiple traditions. The Vietnamese and Korean word kim (金) carries the meaning "gold" or "golden," though in American usage during the mid-20th century, Kim was most often understood as a short form of Kimberly, itself an English place-name of Old English origin. The name thus sits at a crossroads of Western diminutive tradition and East Asian vocabulary, and its meaning and cultural resonance depend on which lineage is being emphasised.
Several well-known bearers have defined the name across very different contexts. Kim Cattrall (born 1956) is a British-Canadian actress most widely associated with the role of Samantha Jones on the HBO series Sex and the City. Kim Kardashian (born 1980) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite whose 2007–2021 lead role in a long-running reality television franchise produced one of the defining 21st-century celebrity profiles. On the political stage, Kim Il-sung (born 1912) was the founder of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and ruled from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994; Kim Jong-un (born 1983) has served as Supreme Leader of North Korea since December 17, 2011; Kim Jong Il was the second Supreme Leader of North Korea, ruling from July 1994 until his death in December 2011; and Kim Dae Jung was the eighth President of South Korea, serving from 1998 to 2003, and the first South Korean recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kim first entered the US Social Security top-1000 as a feminine name in 1955 and peaked in 1960 at rank #34, accumulating over 148,000 top-1000 births across its tracked run. Its top-1000 presence as a feminine name ended after 1970.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kim
US Popularity History (1955–1970)
Annual US births named Kim by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1960 with 12,474 girls named Kim (girl rank #34 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1970, ranked #78 for girls (4,729 US births). That's 44 places below its 1960 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Famous People Named Kim
6 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Kim.
- Kim Cattrall — TV Actress (1956)
- Kim Dae Jung is a former Korean President and a Nobel Peace prize winner.
- Kim Il-sung — World Leader (1912)
- Kim Jong Il was the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.
- Kim Jong-un — World Leader (1983)
- Kim Kardashian — Reality Star (1980)
Looking for names like Kim?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Kim to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kim against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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