Kal
Kal was given to 60 boys in 2025, #2,320 among boys’ names; 1,256 Americans have been recorded with it since 1947 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,200 Americans named Kal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kal?
#2,320 among boys’ names, 2025
Kal rose from #2,374 in 2015 to #2,320 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 28.7 to 35.1 per million.
72 babies in 2021, the peak
Kal peaked in 2021, when 72 boys were given it, #2,047 among boys’ names. The 60 births of 2025 are 83% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 60 | #2,320 | 35.1 |
| 2024 | 61 | #2,330 | 35.4 |
| 2023 | 64 | #2,233 | 37.4 |
| 2022 | 56 | #2,479 | 32.1 |
| 2021 | 72 | #2,047 | 41.2 |
| 2020 | 55 | #2,403 | 31.9 |
| 2019 | 55 | #2,445 | 30.7 |
| 2018 | 56 | #2,369 | 30.8 |
| 2017 | 55 | #2,364 | 29.7 |
| 2016 | 52 | #2,451 | 27.4 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 55 | #2,374 | 28.7 |
| 2014 | 68 | #2,071 | 35.4 |
| 2013 | 18 | #5,067 | 9.5 |
| 2012 | 30 | #3,584 | 15.8 |
| 2011 | 13 | #6,408 | 6.8 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,137 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 13 | #6,623 | 6.6 |
| 2008 | 8 | #9,419 | 3.9 |
| 2007 | 15 | #5,792 | 7.2 |
| 2006 | 12 | #6,674 | 5.8 |
| 2005 | 14 | #5,725 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 16 | #5,120 | 8.1 |
| 2003 | 14 | #5,404 | 7.1 |
| 2002 | 8 | #8,047 | 4.1 |
| 2001 | 10 | #6,702 | 5.1 |
| 2000 | 6 | #9,694 | 3.1 |
| 1999 | 12 | #5,489 | 6.2 |
| 1998 | 7 | #8,011 | 3.7 |
| 1997 | 15 | #4,352 | 8.0 |
| 1996 | 10 | #5,764 | 5.3 |
| 1995 | 5 | #9,575 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 6 | #8,136 | 3.1 |
| 1992 | 11 | #5,053 | 5.5 |
| 1990 | 13 | #4,278 | 6.3 |
| 1989 | 9 | #5,381 | 4.5 |
| 1988 | 11 | #4,303 | 5.7 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,779 | 3.7 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,263 | 2.7 |
| 1985 | 9 | #4,508 | 4.9 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,764 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 5 | #6,772 | 2.8 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,312 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,334 | 5.0 |
| 1979 | 11 | #3,690 | 6.4 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,333 | 3.0 |
| 1975 | 8 | #4,114 | 5.1 |
| 1974 | 10 | #3,443 | 6.4 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,713 | 3.7 |
| 1971 | 8 | #3,798 | 4.5 |
| 1970 | 5 | #5,087 | 2.7 |
| 1969 | 8 | #3,447 | 4.5 |
| 1967 | 9 | #2,870 | 5.2 |
| 1966 | 9 | #2,879 | 5.0 |
| 1965 | 5 | #4,189 | 2.7 |
| 1964 | 13 | #2,358 | 6.5 |
| 1963 | 9 | #2,954 | 4.4 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,352 | 2.4 |
| 1961 | 9 | #2,999 | 4.2 |
| 1960 | 9 | #2,968 | 4.2 |
| 1959 | 14 | #2,250 | 6.6 |
| 1958 | 9 | #2,928 | 4.2 |
| 1957 | 11 | #2,559 | 5.1 |
| 1956 | 8 | #3,083 | 3.8 |
| 1955 | 9 | #2,870 | 4.4 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,000 | 2.6 |
| 1951 | 7 | #3,212 | 3.7 |
| 1949 | 6 | #3,513 | 3.4 |
| 1947 | 5 | #4,006 | 2.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kal has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 68 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kal, and how old are they?
1,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 1,256 Americans ever recorded as Kal. The median Kal alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 1,401 people named Kal (175 women and girls, 1,226 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 860 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Kal rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 84 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 74 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 109 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 208 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 722 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 23,651 babies since 1880, Kal is the sixth most given (5.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 60 of their 1,185 babies (5.1%), the fifth 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 Kal
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 Kal and names like it
- Compare Kal and CalBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKal peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kal since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Kal.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kal alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.