Cayleigh
Cayleigh was given to 27 girls in 2025, #4,899 among girls’ names; 2,297 Americans have been recorded with it since 1986 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,280 Americans named Cayleigh and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 11 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cayleigh by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cayleigh?
#4,899 among girls’ names, 2025
Cayleigh fell from #2,388 in 2015 to #4,899 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 43.1 to 16.8 per million.
162 babies in 2009, the peak
Cayleigh peaked in 2009, when 162 girls were given it, #1,441 among girls’ names. The 27 births of 2025 are 17% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 27 | #4,899 | 16.8 |
| 2024 | 29 | #4,688 | 17.9 |
| 2023 | 26 | #5,024 | 16.2 |
| 2022 | 37 | #3,982 | 22.6 |
| 2021 | 61 | #2,788 | 37.2 |
| 2020 | 74 | #2,378 | 45.8 |
| 2019 | 55 | #2,968 | 32.8 |
| 2018 | 61 | #2,787 | 35.9 |
| 2017 | 64 | #2,698 | 37.1 |
| 2016 | 103 | #1,946 | 58.1 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 77 | #2,388 | 43.1 |
| 2014 | 103 | #1,943 | 57.7 |
| 2013 | 131 | #1,635 | 74.7 |
| 2012 | 115 | #1,783 | 65.3 |
| 2011 | 135 | #1,604 | 76.7 |
| 2010 | 142 | #1,562 | 79.9 |
| 2009 | 162 | #1,441 | 88.2 |
| 2008 | 94 | #2,137 | 49.7 |
| 2007 | 75 | #2,490 | 39.0 |
| 2006 | 71 | #2,561 | 37.3 |
| 2005 | 82 | #2,227 | 44.4 |
| 2004 | 74 | #2,326 | 40.3 |
| 2003 | 48 | #3,088 | 26.3 |
| 2002 | 54 | #2,787 | 30.1 |
| 2001 | 48 | #2,965 | 26.7 |
| 2000 | 49 | #2,905 | 27.0 |
| 1999 | 37 | #3,383 | 20.9 |
| 1998 | 51 | #2,654 | 28.9 |
| 1997 | 25 | #4,245 | 14.4 |
| 1996 | 18 | #5,317 | 10.3 |
| 1995 | 19 | #5,047 | 10.8 |
| 1994 | 20 | #4,872 | 11.2 |
| 1993 | 22 | #4,540 | 12.2 |
| 1992 | 27 | #3,876 | 14.6 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,303 | 7.5 |
| 1990 | 16 | #5,593 | 8.4 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,027 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,643 | 7.9 |
| 1987 | 10 | #6,867 | 5.8 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,755 | 9.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cayleigh a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cayleigh has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys 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 Cayleigh: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cayleigh, and how old are they?
2,280 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,297 Americans ever recorded as Cayleigh. The median Cayleigh alive today is 16 years old; half are between 11 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 1,796 people named Cayleigh (1,793 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,045 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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 | 183 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,250 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 843 |
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 Cayleigh born?
The states with the most babies named Cayleigh are Texas, North Carolina and Georgia, with 41% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 177 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 74 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 71 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Florida | 66 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| New York | 51 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| California | 45 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 41 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Virginia | 40 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Mississippi | 31 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Tennessee | 28 | not ranked | 0.5× |
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 Cayleigh 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 Cayleigh?
Cayleigh is a less common spelling of Kayleigh: SSA has recorded 2,297 Cayleigh and 34,568 Kayleigh since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 66,518 babies since 1880, Cayleigh is the fifth most given (3.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 27 of their 528 babies (5.1%), the fourth 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 Cayleigh
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 Cayleigh and names like it
- Compare Cayleigh and KayleighBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sCayleigh peaked in 2009.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cayleigh since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Cayleigh.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cayleigh alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.