Cali
Cali was given to 518 girls in 2025, #574 among girls’ names; 23,745 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 23,500 Americans named Cali and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 7 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cali by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cali?
#574 among girls’ names, 2025
Cali fell from #232 in 2015 to #574 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.80 to 0.32 per 1,000.
1,688 babies in 2014, the peak
Cali peaked in 2014, when 1,688 babies were given it (1,664 girls, #202 among girls’ names). The 533 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 32% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 518 | #574 | 0.32 |
| 2024 | 622 | #493 | 0.38 |
| 2023 | 683 | #450 | 0.43 |
| 2022 | 844 | #374 | 0.51 |
| 2021 | 969 | #336 | 0.59 |
| 2020 | 1,089 | #294 | 0.67 |
| 2019 | 1,217 | #274 | 0.73 |
| 2018 | 1,188 | #279 | 0.70 |
| 2017 | 1,128 | #288 | 0.65 |
| 2016 | 1,200 | #264 | 0.68 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,437 | #232 | 0.80 |
| 2014 | 1,664 | #202 | 0.93 |
| 2013 | 1,133 | #280 | 0.65 |
| 2012 | 946 | #331 | 0.54 |
| 2011 | 816 | #389 | 0.46 |
| 2010 | 757 | #416 | 0.43 |
| 2009 | 732 | #435 | 0.40 |
| 2008 | 740 | #428 | 0.39 |
| 2007 | 664 | #489 | 0.35 |
| 2006 | 482 | #605 | 0.25 |
| 2005 | 450 | #624 | 0.24 |
| 2004 | 346 | #754 | 0.19 |
| 2003 | 317 | #779 | 0.17 |
| 2002 | 284 | #819 | 0.16 |
| 2001 | 257 | #891 | 0.14 |
| 2000 | 277 | #817 | 0.15 |
| 1999 | 266 | #815 | 0.15 |
| 1998 | 235 | #897 | 0.13 |
| 1997 | 201 | #970 | 0.12 |
| 1996 | 171 | #1,078 | 0.10 |
| 1995 | 141 | #1,213 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 111 | #1,431 | 0.06 |
| 1993 | 128 | #1,310 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 128 | #1,311 | 0.07 |
| 1991 | 122 | #1,340 | 0.07 |
| 1990 | 148 | #1,160 | 0.08 |
| 1989 | 132 | #1,217 | 0.07 |
| 1988 | 76 | #1,686 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 96 | #1,397 | 0.06 |
| 1986 | 96 | #1,352 | 0.06 |
| 1985 | 128 | #1,128 | 0.07 |
| 1984 | 46 | #2,154 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 47 | #2,097 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 43 | #2,292 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 22 | #3,635 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 29 | #3,007 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 17 | #4,247 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 30 | #2,748 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 23 | #3,279 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 22 | #3,195 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 21 | #3,279 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 16 | #3,877 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 17 | #3,653 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,522 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,682 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,437 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,497 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,099 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 6 | #5,866 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #6,634 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 11 | #4,044 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #6,683 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #5,623 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cali a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 23,745 Americans recorded as Cali, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 518 girls and 15 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Cali: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cali, and how old are they?
23,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 23,745 Americans ever recorded as Cali. The median Cali alive today is 12 years old; half are between 7 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 16,918 people named Cali (16,570 women and girls, 348 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 18,988 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 19 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 215 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,590 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,740 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 14,000 |
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 Cali born?
The states with the most babies named Cali are California, Florida and Texas, with 31% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 58 | #557 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 50 | #368 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 39 | #766 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 26 | #433 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 25 | #449 | 1.2× |
| New York | 24 | #681 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 22 | #494 | 1.0× |
| Louisiana | 20 | #214 | 1.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #657 | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 15 | #523 | 1.0× |
Where Cali is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cali is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1959 it was given 1.4 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 girls’ 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 Cali 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 164,956 babies since 1880, Cali is the third most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 533 of their 3,627 babies (15%), again the third 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 Cali
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 Cali and names like it
- Compare Cali and CallieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sCali peaked in 2014.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cali since 1910.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Cali.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Cali alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.