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Kaley vs Kalief

American parents have registered 13,707 Kaleys since 1880, against 203 Kaliefs. Kaley is still ahead, with 38 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kaley Kalief

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 1978, when Kaley had 27 and Kalief had 10.

Side by side

  Kaley Kalief
Total US births 13,707203
Most in one year 57814
Babies in 2025 38under 5
Estimated living today 13,000200
Median age today 2533
Peak year 20031989
Best rank 495th girls3,809th boys
Rank in 2025 3,832ndunranked
First recorded 19671978
Girls / boys 13,682 / 250 / 203

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 Kaliefs alive today are over 33; half the Kaleys are over 25. That is 8 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: Kaley and Kalief.