Humanverse

Kayleigh vs Kayse

American parents have registered 34,568 Kayleighs since 1880, against 516 Kayses. Kayleigh is still ahead, with 340 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kayleigh against Kayse, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kayleigh Kayse

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 51 years in which either name was published, Kayleigh for 41 years and Kayse for 10 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Kayleigh Kayse
Total US births 34,568516
Most in one year 1,45032
Babies in 2025 340under 5
Estimated living today 34,000510
Median age today 1831
Peak year 20091987
Best rank 227th girls2,972nd girls
Rank in 2025 799thunranked
First recorded 19841974
Girls / boys 34,561 / 7447 / 69

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 Kayses alive today are over 31; half the Kayleighs 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: Kayleigh and Kayse.