The Baby Name Wizard

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Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name Kirsty!

Comments and insights on the name Kirsty: | Edit

Kirsty is a fairly common name in Britain, particuarly in the 90s. It is simular in use to names like Gemma, Sam/Sammy, Kimberley.

Personal experiences with the name Kirsty: | Edit

I'm British and, whilst my name may have been popular in the 1990s, I can tell you that I rarely met any others when I was at school in the 1970s and 1980s... I HATED my name, mainly because no one knew how to say it ("KEER-sty", "KURT-sy" (WTF?), "KRIS-ty"...). My grandmother even told all her friends my name was Katrina when I was born because she found "Kirsty" so hard to get to grips with... It's basically a Scottish nickname for Christine, rarely used as a name in its own right, certainly outside Scotland, until relatively recently. When I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be called Wendy instead!
I now live in France (and previously in Spain), and it's even more of a hassle here... People think it's my last name, nearly everyone pronounces it "KRIS-ty" (like the whole country's dyslexic or something) and my primary criterion when choosing names for my own daughters was that the name had to be pretty much international and more or less phonetic (we went with Carla and Lydie (the French version of Lydia) and they seem to be OK here in France, plus in Britain and every other country we've been to).

Nicknames for Kirsty: | Edit

Smerst, Kim, Kirst

Meanings and history of the name Kirsty: | Edit

Alternate spelling of Kirstie, a Scottish contraction of Christina, meaning "a Christian woman", as explained in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Weir of Hermiston":

"Archie overtook her like a man whose mind was made up. 'Miss Kirstie,' he began.
'Miss Christina, if you please, Mr. Weir,' she interrupted. 'I canna bear the contraction.'"

Famous real-life people named Kirsty: | Edit

Kirsty Hume, Scottish model
Kirsty Gallacher, Scottish model and television personality
Kirsty MacColl, Scottish singer
Kirsty Williams, Welsh politician
Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwean swimmer

Kirsty in song, story & screen: | Edit

I can sing well go mee lololololol :~