Humanverse

Kaia vs Kailei

American parents have registered 20,967 Kaias since 1880, against 617 Kaileis. Kaia is still ahead, with 1,623 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kaia Kailei

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

Kaia has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1955 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1988, when Kaia had 27 and Kailei had 7.

Side by side

  Kaia Kailei
Total US births 20,967617
Most in one year 1,68034
Babies in 2025 1,623under 5
Estimated living today 21,000610
Median age today 718
Peak year 20242004
Best rank 180th girls4,093rd girls
Rank in 2025 193rdunranked
First recorded 19551988
Girls / boys 20,909 / 58617 / 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 Kaileis alive today are over 18; half the Kaias are over 7. That is 11 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: Kaia and Kailei.