Caliyah
Caliyah was given to 96 girls in 2025, #1,992 among girls’ names; 2,037 Americans have been recorded with it since 1994 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,020 Americans named Caliyah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Caliyah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Caliyah?
#1,992 among girls’ names, 2025
Caliyah rose from #2,028 in 2015 to #1,992 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 54.3 to 59.7 per million.
106 babies in 2017, the peak
Caliyah peaked in 2017, when 106 girls were given it, #1,906 among girls’ names. The 96 births of 2025 are 91% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 96 | #1,992 | 59.7 |
| 2024 | 80 | #2,312 | 49.4 |
| 2023 | 87 | #2,179 | 54.2 |
| 2022 | 82 | #2,277 | 50.0 |
| 2021 | 97 | #1,995 | 59.1 |
| 2020 | 94 | #1,993 | 58.1 |
| 2019 | 98 | #1,975 | 58.4 |
| 2018 | 101 | #1,956 | 59.4 |
| 2017 | 106 | #1,906 | 61.4 |
| 2016 | 104 | #1,932 | 58.7 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 97 | #2,028 | 54.3 |
| 2014 | 98 | #2,011 | 54.9 |
| 2013 | 80 | #2,311 | 45.6 |
| 2012 | 100 | #1,956 | 56.8 |
| 2011 | 97 | #2,021 | 55.1 |
| 2010 | 79 | #2,389 | 44.4 |
| 2009 | 69 | #2,651 | 37.6 |
| 2008 | 66 | #2,754 | 34.9 |
| 2007 | 62 | #2,894 | 32.2 |
| 2006 | 45 | #3,514 | 23.7 |
| 2005 | 61 | #2,732 | 33.0 |
| 2004 | 45 | #3,341 | 24.5 |
| 2003 | 44 | #3,297 | 24.1 |
| 2002 | 41 | #3,341 | 22.8 |
| 2001 | 30 | #4,115 | 16.7 |
| 2000 | 19 | #5,739 | 10.5 |
| 1999 | 15 | #6,547 | 8.5 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,085 | 6.2 |
| 1997 | 14 | #6,541 | 8.0 |
| 1996 | 7 | #10,750 | 4.0 |
| 1995 | 5 | #13,747 | 2.8 |
| 1994 | 7 | #10,735 | 3.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Caliyah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Caliyah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Caliyah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Caliyah, and how old are they?
2,020 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,037 Americans ever recorded as Caliyah. The median Caliyah alive today is 11 years old; half are between 6 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 1,102 people named Caliyah (1,092 women and girls, 10 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,514 born in the U.S. The Census count is 27% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 19 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 790 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,210 |
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 Caliyah born?
The states with the most babies named Caliyah are Florida, Texas and Tennessee, with 46% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 11 | #1,264 | 1.5× |
| Texas | 9 | #2,250 | 0.6× |
| Tennessee | 7 | #911 | 1.5× |
| California | 6 | #2,839 | 0.4× |
| New York | 6 | #1,877 | 0.1× |
| Georgia | 5 | #1,574 | 1.8× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,495 | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,248 | 0.3× |
| Indiana | 5 | #1,073 | 0.2× |
Where Caliyah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Caliyah is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1994 it was given 1.8 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 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 Caliyah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Caliyah?
Caliyah is a less common spelling of Kaliyah: SSA has recorded 2,037 Caliyah and 12,951 Kaliyah since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 23,951 babies since 1880, Caliyah is the third most given (8.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 96 of their 1,534 babies (6.3%), the sixth 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 Caliyah
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 Caliyah and names like it
- Compare Caliyah and KaliyahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sCaliyah peaked in 2017.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Caliyah since 1910.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Caliyah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Caliyah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.