Cael
Cael was given to 79 boys in 2025, #1,945 among boys’ names; 3,745 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,700 Americans named Cael and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 13 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cael by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cael mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Cael is “a male given name.”
A variant of Kyle.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cael?
#1,945 among boys’ names, 2025
Cael fell from #1,248 in 2015 to #1,945 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 75.6 to 46.3 per million.
272 babies in 2011, the peak
Cael peaked in 2011, when 272 boys were given it, #805 among boys’ names. The 79 births of 2025 are 29% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 79 | #1,945 | 0.05 |
| 2024 | 60 | #2,349 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 42 | #2,958 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 38 | #3,161 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 44 | #2,827 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 51 | #2,514 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 57 | #2,369 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 73 | #1,994 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 69 | #2,036 | 0.04 |
| 2016 | 92 | #1,695 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 145 | #1,248 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 173 | #1,102 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 182 | #1,052 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 212 | #950 | 0.11 |
| 2011 | 272 | #805 | 0.14 |
| 2010 | 252 | #840 | 0.13 |
| 2009 | 270 | #817 | 0.14 |
| 2008 | 263 | #832 | 0.13 |
| 2007 | 214 | #925 | 0.10 |
| 2006 | 206 | #919 | 0.10 |
| 2005 | 215 | #854 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 175 | #958 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 176 | #932 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 222 | #777 | 0.11 |
| 2001 | 55 | #1,957 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 32 | #2,807 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 22 | #3,491 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 11 | #5,512 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 5 | #9,456 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 6 | #8,080 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 6 | #7,747 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 5 | #8,272 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,696 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cael a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cael has been given almost only to boys: 13 girls in 33 years of records.
Girls and boys named Cael: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cael, and how old are they?
3,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,745 Americans ever recorded as Cael. The median Cael alive today is 17 years old; half are between 13 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 3,366 people named Cael (34 women and girls, 3,332 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,412 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 24 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,580 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,100 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Cael born?
The states with the most babies named Cael are Texas, Maryland and Iowa, with 81% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Maryland and Iowa are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 10 | #1,669 | 0.5× |
| Maryland | 6 | #722 | 0.1× |
| Iowa | 5 | #589 | 13.8× |
| California | 5 | #2,530 | 0.3× |
Where Cael is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cael is most over-represented in Iowa: since 1989 it was given 13.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Cael with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 22,561 babies since 1880, Cael is the fourth most given (17% of them). In 2025 it was given to 79 of their 1,167 babies (6.8%), again the fourth most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cael
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cael and names like it
- Compare Cael and CalBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sCael peaked in 2011.
- Iowa’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cael since 1910.
- The top names of 2011The year the most babies were named Cael.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cael alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.