Meaning: Its source is Cyneburg leah, an Old English name meaning "Cyneburg's field."

Origin: "Cyneburg leah."

Narrative: Cyneburg (meaning ''royal forest'') was an Old English personal name. In time, the place name identifying Cyneburg's holdings evolved into its present form of Kimberley.

The British family that took it for a surname gave it to yet another place in South Africa. When that location came into the news during the Boer War at the end of the 19th century, Kimberley (in various spellings and shortened forms) became a popular first name in Britain, and eventually in America.