Humanverse

Kailei vs Kaitlin

American parents have registered 57,430 Kaitlins since 1880, against 617 Kaileis. Kaitlin is still ahead, with 35 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kailei against Kaitlin, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kailei Kaitlin

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

Kaitlin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1971 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2022, when Kailei had 13 and Kaitlin had 23.

Side by side

  Kailei Kaitlin
Total US births 61757,430
Most in one year 343,612
Babies in 2025 under 535
Estimated living today 61056,000
Median age today 1831
Peak year 20041995
Best rank 4,093rd girls94th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked4,067th
First recorded 19881971
Girls / boys 617 / 057,355 / 75

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 Kaitlins alive today are over 31; half the Kaileis are over 18. That is 13 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: Kailei and Kaitlin.