Humanverse

Kaleb vs Kalleigh

American parents have registered 86,851 Kalebs since 1880, against 672 Kalleighs. Kaleb is still ahead, with 1,143 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kaleb Kalleigh

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

Kaleb has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1970 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2014, when Kaleb had 2,776 and Kalleigh had 42.

Side by side

  Kaleb Kalleigh
Total US births 86,851672
Most in one year 3,82955
Babies in 2025 1,14310
Estimated living today 85,000670
Median age today 1814
Peak year 20072009
Best rank 113th boys3,088th girls
Rank in 2025 295th9,457th
First recorded 19701990
Girls / boys 202 / 86,649672 / 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 Kalebs alive today are over 18; half the Kalleighs are over 14. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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