What is Kim short for?
Kim is short for Kimberly and Joachim, and it is a name of its own in the Vietnamese tradition. In 2025, 34 girls and 6 boys in the United States were given Kim as their full name, with nothing longer behind it, according to Social Security records.
The meeting point
Three unrelated parents: and the one everyone assumes is not a given name at all.
Kim · a Vietnamese feminine given name, 金, "gold" (source)
Kimberly · the English short form of Kimberly, from Lord Kimberley's town (source)
Joachim · a Scandinavian masculine short form of Joachim, Hebrew "raised by Yahweh" (source)
And the famous one: Korean Kim 김 is a SURNAME, carried by a fifth of South Korea: not a given name. The assumption everyone makes is the one that breaks.
The names behind Kim
Each count is the number of children given that name in the United States in 2025, from US Social Security records. A name given to fewer than five children in a year is left out of the published file.
Which of these fits YOUR family? →