Kimberly (given name)

Kimberly is a female given name of Old English origin. John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, a place in Norfolk, England, popularised the name by giving it to a town in South Africa and a region in Australia. The first element, Kimber, reflect various Old English personal names; in the case of the Earldom in Norfolk this first appeared as Chineburlai in 1086 and seems to mean "clearing of a woman called Cyneburg." The second element is the Old English leah or leigh "meadow, clearing in a woodland". A variant spelling of the name is Kimberley.