Humanverse

Kile vs Kiley

American parents have registered 20,272 Kileys since 1880, against 1,065 Kiles. Kiley is still ahead, with 61 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kile against Kiley, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kile Kiley

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 72 years in which either name was published, Kiley for 59 years and Kile for 13 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Kile Kiley
Total US births 1,06520,272
Most in one year 421,098
Babies in 2025 under 561
Estimated living today 99020,000
Median age today 3222
Peak year 19962008
Best rank 2,047th boys307th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,778th
First recorded 19201958
Girls / boys 0 / 1,06519,175 / 1,097

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 Kiles alive today are over 32; half the Kileys are over 22. That is 10 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: Kile and Kiley.