Callum
Callum was given to 2,995 boys in 2025, #118 among boys’ names; 16,089 Americans have been recorded with it since 1983 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 16,000 Americans named Callum and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 4 years old and half are between 2 and 9.
Callum was given to 729 more boys in 2025 than in 2024, the #10 gain in babies among boys’ names.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Callum by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Callum mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Callum is “a male given name from Scottish Gaelic.”
Scottish surname, shortened from McCallum; also a variant of Calum.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Callum?
#118 among boys’ names, 2025
Callum rose from #685 in 2015 to #118 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.19 to 1.8 per 1,000.
3,003 babies in 2025, the peak
Callum peaked in 2025, when 3,003 babies were given it (2,995 boys, #118 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 2,266 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,995 | #118 | 1.8 |
| 2024 | 2,266 | #158 | 1.3 |
| 2023 | 1,645 | #221 | 1.0 |
| 2022 | 1,417 | #249 | 0.81 |
| 2021 | 1,264 | #273 | 0.72 |
| 2020 | 968 | #336 | 0.56 |
| 2019 | 671 | #449 | 0.37 |
| 2018 | 493 | #558 | 0.27 |
| 2017 | 433 | #609 | 0.23 |
| 2016 | 349 | #706 | 0.18 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 369 | #685 | 0.19 |
| 2014 | 327 | #732 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 287 | #782 | 0.15 |
| 2012 | 275 | #807 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 253 | #846 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 250 | #847 | 0.13 |
| 2009 | 240 | #879 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 205 | #974 | 0.10 |
| 2007 | 168 | #1,091 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 142 | #1,187 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 104 | #1,414 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 105 | #1,373 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 112 | #1,268 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 82 | #1,511 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 87 | #1,428 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 79 | #1,511 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 73 | #1,530 | 0.04 |
| 1998 | 58 | #1,739 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 66 | #1,549 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 67 | #1,498 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 47 | #1,837 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 39 | #2,084 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 19 | #3,377 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 24 | #2,844 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 17 | #3,474 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 11 | #4,698 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,698 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,526 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,550 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,403 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #6,656 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,443 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 6 | #5,580 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Callum a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Callum has been given almost only to boys: 38 girls in 43 years of records.
Girls and boys named Callum: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Callum, and how old are they?
16,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 16,089 Americans ever recorded as Callum. The median Callum alive today is 4 years old; half are between 2 and 9.
The 2020 Census counted 5,894 people named Callum (28 women and girls, 5,866 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,687 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 258 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,270 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 13,400 |
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 Callum born?
The states with the most babies named Callum are California, Texas and Ohio, with 20% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 243 | #160 | 0.8× |
| Texas | 217 | #172 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 148 | #78 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 134 | #96 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 113 | #109 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 111 | #196 | 0.6× |
| New York | 106 | #189 | 0.8× |
| Massachusetts | 105 | #59 | 1.8× |
| Indiana | 98 | #75 | 1.1× |
| Virginia | 94 | #95 | 1.1× |
Where Callum is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Callum is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1983 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 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 Callum 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 22,475 babies since 1880, Callum is the most given (72% of them). In 2025 it was given to 3,003 of their 3,587 babies (84%), again the 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 Callum
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 Callum and names like it
- Compare Callum and CalumBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCallum peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Callum since 1910.
- Scottish Gaelic namesWiktionary’s origin for Callum: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Callum.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Callum alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.