Kimberly (sometimes spelled as Kimberley), originally used as an English surname, is both a male and female given name.

Origin and Meaning

It is of Old English origin, and its meaning is Cyneburg's field and is commonly used as a place name and also a surname. Other proposed origins include forest and from the meadow/fortress. The Old English meaning is 'the wood of Cynemaer' and theModern English meaning is 'diamond'.

Kimberly is interesting both historically and eytmologically. It comes from the Old English words 'cyne' meaning royal and 'maer' meaning fame, which together made the name 'Cynemaer'. An early person named Cynemaer gave his name to a 'lea' (a wood, grove, clearing, hill, lea or meadow) which them named a town in Nottinghamshire Kimberley. This town was originally called Chinemarelie.Another Cynemaer named his town in Norfolk Chineburlai, which is Kimberley today.

From the naming of these towns, the town name began its use as a byname, which is an early type of surname. It was then used as the modern surname.

People

• Kimberley Rew - English singer/songwriter/guitarist, member of The Soft Boys & Katrina and the Waves; frequent collaborator/sideman/touring musician with former Soft Boys bandmates Robyn Hitchcock & Morris Windsor.
• Kimberley Walsh - English singer in the girl band Girls Aloud
• Kimberly Jones - American dancer in Cirque du Soleil
• Kim Chiu - Filipino actress, singer
• Kimberly Williams-Paisley - Actress
• Kim Cattrall - Actress
• Kim Philby - A member of British Intelligence who spied for the Russian. He defected to Russia and became a KGB officer. He was said to have derived his nickname from the book "Kim"
• Kimberley "Kim" Hughes - Australian cricketer who captained his side against the West Indies, and tearfully resigned after losing four home games in a row.
• Kimberly Wyatt - Singer, dancer, member of the Pussycat Dolls
• Kimberly Giorgio - American author, actress and entertainer. Latest project is the autobiography "Pretty Smart Bimbo".
• Kimberly Ayelabola - A nigerian graduate of Robert Gordon University(Computing Software Technology with network Management)presently working for Talisman Energy as a desktop engineer

Fictional characters

• Kimberly Possible - AKA Kim Possible, made by Disney
• Kim (AKA Kimball O'Hara) - the most famous of all Kims was a street urchin in Rudyard Kipling's book Kim. From the early 1900s till the 1960s the name Kim was mostly used for boys because of the popularity of this book. Girls were generally only given the name from the 1960s onwards. In modern times, the name is used almost exclusively by females. Its popular origin has been largely forgotten.
• Kimberly Hart - One of the most successful characters of the Power Rangers franchise. The character was portrayed by Amy Jo Johnson through three seasons (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) and two movies (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie).