keeling

Keeling is a surname and a geographic name. It is associated with individuals who bear the surname and with places named Keeling, notably Keeling Island in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands group.

Notable people with the surname include Charles David Keeling (1928–2005), an American chemist who established the Keeling Curve, a long-term record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations begun at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii in 1958. His work helped to document the steady rise in CO2 levels. Ralph Keeling, a climate scientist and son of Charles David Keeling, has continued the monitoring program and contributed to ongoing analyses of atmospheric CO2 data.

Geographic usage centers on Keeling Island, part of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean. The archipelago consists of 27 coral islands, with the two main inhabited islands being Home Island and West Island; North Keeling Island is uninhabited. The name Keeling in the territory’s title honors Captain William Keeling, an early European navigator associated with the discovery and naming history of the islands, while the overall name combines this with the earlier designation Cocos.

In other contexts, Keeling primarily appears as a surname. The term does not denote a single widely known concept beyond its use as a family name and a geographic toponym within the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.