- Origin: English
- Meaning: “King’s meadow.”
- Gender: primarily masculine, occasionally used on females
- First Use: 16th-century
- Usage: Nigeria, Ghana, English-speaking countries
- Pron: KINGZ-kee
From the transferred use of the English place-name and surname, it is ultimately from the Anglo-Saxon cyning (King) and lēah (lea; meadow).
It is the name of several places in England, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Its use as a given-name can be found as early as the 1530s. There is a burial record for a Kingsley George (burial date, August 2nd, 1533). However, it could have also been a way to identify an unnamed infant by combining the father and mother’s surnames for documentation purposes. It is uncertain. There are several other burial records for male Kingsleys from 18th-century, England, however, it may be the same case where an unnamed infant was given a combination of the father and mother’s surname for record purposes. Birth records for Kingsleys start in the 1840s.
In recent years, it was the name of a character in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
The name is also popularly used as a male-name in Ghana and Nigeria.
Its sporadic use as a female name has only occurred since the late 2020s onward.
It appeared in the U.K. Top 600 names in 1996, and currently ranks in at #369. It’s rankings in other countries are as follows:
- #409 (France, 2024)
- #983 (U.S.A., 2024)
Sources