Humanverse

Kaleigh vs Kalley

American parents have registered 16,250 Kaleighs since 1880, against 710 Kalleys. Kaleigh is still ahead, with 56 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kaleigh against Kalley, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kaleigh Kalley

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

Of the 49 years in which either name was published, Kaleigh for 46 years and Kalley for 3 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Kaleigh Kalley
Total US births 16,250710
Most in one year 72964
Babies in 2025 565
Estimated living today 16,000700
Median age today 2327
Peak year 20011997
Best rank 399th girls2,158th girls
Rank in 2025 2,957th14,942nd
First recorded 19801977
Girls / boys 16,244 / 6710 / 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 Kalleys alive today are over 27; half the Kaleighs are over 23. 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: Kaleigh and Kalley.