Cale
Cale was given to 47 boys in 2025, #2,722 among boys’ names; 8,291 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,980 Americans named Cale and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 17 and 37.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cale by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cale?
#2,722 among boys’ names, 2025
Cale fell from #1,279 in 2015 to #2,722 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 73.0 to 27.5 per million.
409 babies in 2008, the peak
Cale peaked in 2008, when 409 babies were given it (395 boys, #624 among boys’ names). The 47 births of 2025 are 11% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 47 | #2,722 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 37 | #3,225 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 31 | #3,638 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 44 | #2,877 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 33 | #3,429 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 41 | #2,890 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 43 | #2,863 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 42 | #2,852 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 58 | #2,277 | 0.03 |
| 2016 | 91 | #1,706 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (72)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 140 | #1,279 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 175 | #1,093 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 180 | #1,054 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 227 | #911 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 259 | #833 | 0.14 |
| 2010 | 339 | #691 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 366 | #669 | 0.18 |
| 2008 | 395 | #624 | 0.19 |
| 2007 | 323 | #714 | 0.16 |
| 2006 | 288 | #741 | 0.14 |
| 2005 | 262 | #758 | 0.13 |
| 2004 | 233 | #779 | 0.12 |
| 2003 | 237 | #753 | 0.12 |
| 2002 | 232 | #746 | 0.12 |
| 2001 | 194 | #836 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 191 | #837 | 0.10 |
| 1999 | 166 | #901 | 0.09 |
| 1998 | 170 | #855 | 0.09 |
| 1997 | 132 | #979 | 0.07 |
| 1996 | 143 | #913 | 0.08 |
| 1995 | 119 | #1,013 | 0.06 |
| 1994 | 132 | #956 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 138 | #914 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 150 | #861 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 148 | #859 | 0.07 |
| 1990 | 125 | #918 | 0.06 |
| 1989 | 120 | #923 | 0.06 |
| 1988 | 140 | #800 | 0.07 |
| 1987 | 162 | #717 | 0.09 |
| 1986 | 173 | #689 | 0.09 |
| 1985 | 186 | #642 | 0.10 |
| 1984 | 203 | #596 | 0.11 |
| 1983 | 128 | #764 | 0.07 |
| 1982 | 89 | #952 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 89 | #955 | 0.05 |
| 1980 | 100 | #894 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 94 | #902 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 88 | #921 | 0.05 |
| 1977 | 102 | #847 | 0.06 |
| 1976 | 62 | #1,056 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 62 | #1,055 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 58 | #1,083 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 43 | #1,256 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 45 | #1,232 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 76 | #935 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 75 | #922 | 0.04 |
| 1969 | 60 | #990 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 31 | #1,396 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 9 | #2,798 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 13 | #2,229 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,653 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,057 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,022 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,284 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #3,947 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #3,805 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 6 | #3,417 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,611 | under 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #3,835 | under 0.01 |
| 1930 | 6 | #3,644 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #4,390 | under 0.01 |
| 1917 | 8 | #2,988 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cale a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,291 Americans recorded as Cale, 1% are girls and 99% boys. In 2025 it went to 47 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Cale: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cale, and how old are they?
7,980 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 8,291 Americans ever recorded as Cale. The median Cale alive today is 24 years old; half are between 17 and 37.
The 2020 Census counted 7,688 people named Cale (169 women and girls, 7,519 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,836 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 26 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 824 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,130 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,040 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 954 |
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 Cale born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | 6 | #775 | 1.0× |
Where Cale is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cale is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1917 it was given 4.3 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 Cale 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 18,933 babies since 1880, Cale is the most given (44% of them). In 2025 it was given to 47 of their 347 babies (14%), the second most given that year.
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 Cale
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 Cale and names like it
- Compare Cale and KaleBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sCale peaked in 2008.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cale since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Cale.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cale alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.