Calem
Calem was given to 12 boys in 2025, #6,869 among boys’ names; 437 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Calem by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Calem?
#6,869 among boys’ names, 2025
Calem fell from #6,384 in 2015 to #6,869 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 6.8 to 7.0 per million.
21 babies in 2009, the peak
Calem peaked in 2009, when 21 boys were given it, #4,602 among boys’ names. The 12 births of 2025 are 57% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #6,869 | 7.0 |
| 2024 | 11 | #7,334 | 6.4 |
| 2023 | 19 | #5,097 | 11.1 |
| 2022 | 18 | #5,244 | 10.3 |
| 2021 | 12 | #6,764 | 6.9 |
| 2020 | 6 | #10,812 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | 16 | #5,594 | 8.9 |
| 2018 | 11 | #7,199 | 6.1 |
| 2017 | 9 | #8,261 | 4.9 |
| 2016 | 12 | #6,787 | 6.3 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 13 | #6,384 | 6.8 |
| 2014 | 16 | #5,512 | 8.3 |
| 2013 | 15 | #5,700 | 7.9 |
| 2012 | 17 | #5,277 | 9.0 |
| 2011 | 15 | #5,700 | 7.9 |
| 2010 | 15 | #5,775 | 7.8 |
| 2009 | 21 | #4,602 | 10.6 |
| 2008 | 16 | #5,522 | 7.8 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,276 | 4.3 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,504 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 17 | #4,848 | 8.5 |
| 2004 | 14 | #5,533 | 7.1 |
| 2003 | 13 | #5,596 | 6.6 |
| 2002 | 6 | #9,544 | 3.1 |
| 2001 | 12 | #5,715 | 6.2 |
| 2000 | 10 | #6,375 | 5.1 |
| 1999 | 7 | #7,969 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 8 | #6,933 | 4.2 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,384 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 5 | #9,183 | 2.6 |
| 1995 | 8 | #6,470 | 4.2 |
| 1994 | 6 | #7,897 | 3.1 |
| 1993 | 10 | #5,398 | 5.1 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,536 | 3.0 |
| 1991 | 8 | #6,012 | 4.0 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,063 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 5 | #7,426 | 2.6 |
| 1985 | 6 | #5,886 | 3.2 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,395 | 2.8 |
| 1977 | 5 | #5,957 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Calem a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Calem has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 40 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Calem: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Calem, and how old are they?
An estimated 429 Americans named Calem and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 9 and 25. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 352 people named Calem (3 women and girls, 349 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 355 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 22,992 babies since 1880, Calem is the seventh most given (1.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 12 of their 3,484 babies (<1%), again the seventh 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 Calem
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 Calem and names like it
- Compare Calem and CallumBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sCalem peaked in 2009.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Calem.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Calem alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.