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Cali vs Callee

American parents have registered 23,745 Calis since 1880, against 790 Callees. Cali is still ahead, with 533 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Cali against Callee, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Cali Callee

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Cali has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1959 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1972, when Cali had 9 and Callee had 6.

Side by side

  Cali Callee
Total US births 23,745790
Most in one year 1,68841
Babies in 2025 5337
Estimated living today 24,000780
Median age today 1118
Peak year 20142008
Best rank 202nd girls3,859th girls
Rank in 2025 574th11,932nd
First recorded 19591972
Girls / boys 23,342 / 403790 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Callees alive today are over 18; half the Calis are over 11. That is 7 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Cali and Callee.