Kailey
Kailey was given to 153 girls in 2025, #1,420 among girls’ names; 27,254 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 26,900 Americans named Kailey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 16 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kailey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kailey mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kailey is “a female given name transferred from the surname, variant of Kaylee.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kailey?
#1,420 among girls’ names, 2025
Kailey fell from #531 in 2015 to #1,420 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.33 to 0.10 per 1,000.
1,449 babies in 2004, the peak
Kailey peaked in 2004, when 1,449 babies were given it (1,439 girls, #228 among girls’ names). The 153 births of 2025 are 11% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 153 | #1,420 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 180 | #1,288 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 226 | #1,091 | 0.14 |
| 2022 | 256 | #1,017 | 0.16 |
| 2021 | 271 | #961 | 0.17 |
| 2020 | 322 | #848 | 0.20 |
| 2019 | 346 | #800 | 0.21 |
| 2018 | 427 | #685 | 0.25 |
| 2017 | 454 | #656 | 0.26 |
| 2016 | 507 | #595 | 0.29 |
Every recorded year (48)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 588 | #531 | 0.33 |
| 2014 | 664 | #476 | 0.37 |
| 2013 | 671 | #452 | 0.38 |
| 2012 | 757 | #415 | 0.43 |
| 2011 | 906 | #356 | 0.52 |
| 2010 | 834 | #384 | 0.47 |
| 2009 | 999 | #330 | 0.54 |
| 2008 | 1,083 | #309 | 0.57 |
| 2007 | 1,178 | #287 | 0.61 |
| 2006 | 1,275 | #258 | 0.67 |
| 2005 | 1,298 | #251 | 0.70 |
| 2004 | 1,439 | #228 | 0.78 |
| 2003 | 1,331 | #246 | 0.73 |
| 2002 | 1,093 | #284 | 0.61 |
| 2001 | 1,090 | #288 | 0.61 |
| 2000 | 1,050 | #305 | 0.58 |
| 1999 | 1,048 | #294 | 0.59 |
| 1998 | 1,114 | #279 | 0.63 |
| 1997 | 789 | #351 | 0.45 |
| 1996 | 730 | #369 | 0.42 |
| 1995 | 676 | #391 | 0.38 |
| 1994 | 583 | #434 | 0.33 |
| 1993 | 573 | #436 | 0.32 |
| 1992 | 529 | #465 | 0.29 |
| 1991 | 412 | #566 | 0.22 |
| 1990 | 376 | #602 | 0.20 |
| 1989 | 308 | #661 | 0.17 |
| 1988 | 226 | #811 | 0.13 |
| 1987 | 169 | #956 | 0.10 |
| 1986 | 148 | #1,025 | 0.09 |
| 1985 | 82 | #1,499 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 29 | #3,013 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 18 | #4,182 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 12 | #5,696 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 9 | #7,044 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #11,090 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,827 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,577 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kailey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kailey has been given almost only to girls: 10 boys in 48 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kailey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kailey, and how old are they?
26,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 27,254 Americans ever recorded as Kailey. The median Kailey alive today is 22 years old; half are between 16 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 22,962 people named Kailey (22,911 women and girls, 51 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 25,675 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 14 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,770 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 17,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,030 |
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 Kailey born?
The states with the most babies named Kailey are Texas, California and Florida, with 65% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 24 | #1,136 | 1.0× |
| California | 21 | #1,203 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,200 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 10 | #881 | 1.1× |
| New York | 10 | #1,368 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 6 | #1,349 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 5 | #1,274 | 0.7× |
Where Kailey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kailey is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1970 it was given 1.2 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 Kailey 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 226,957 babies since 1880, Kailey is the second most given (12% of them). In 2025 it was given to 153 of their 1,825 babies (8.4%), the third 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 Kailey
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 Kailey and names like it
- Compare Kailey and KayleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKailey peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kailey since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kailey: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Kailey.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kailey alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.