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Kaleigha vs Kaley

American parents have registered 13,707 Kaleys since 1880, against 1,017 Kaleighas. Kaley is still ahead, with 38 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kaleigha against Kaley, 1880 to 2025 0 150 300 450 600 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kaleigha Kaley

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

Kaley has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1967 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Kaleigha had 35 and Kaley had 38.

Side by side

  Kaleigha Kaley
Total US births 1,01713,707
Most in one year 67578
Babies in 2025 3538
Estimated living today 1,00013,000
Median age today 1125
Peak year 20102003
Best rank 2,670th girls495th girls
Rank in 2025 4,067th3,832nd
First recorded 19961967
Girls / boys 1,017 / 013,682 / 25

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 Kaleys alive today are over 25; half the Kaleighas are over 11. That is 14 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: Kaleigha and Kaley.