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Kaliyah vs Kalley

American parents have registered 12,951 Kaliyahs since 1880, against 710 Kalleys. Kaliyah is still ahead, with 791 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kaliyah 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 46 years in which either name was published, Kaliyah for 31 years and Kalley for 15 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Kaliyah Kalley
Total US births 12,951710
Most in one year 79164
Babies in 2025 7915
Estimated living today 13,000700
Median age today 1127
Peak year 20251997
Best rank 392nd girls2,158th girls
Rank in 2025 392nd14,942nd
First recorded 19941977
Girls / boys 12,946 / 5710 / 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 Kaliyahs are over 11. That is 16 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: Kaliyah and Kalley.