Kala
Kala was given to 10 girls in 2025, #9,762 among girls’ names; 7,772 Americans have been recorded with it since 1943 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,500 Americans named Kala and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 30 and 40.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kala by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kala mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Kala is “a female or (occasionally) male given name originating from the Bible” Its etymology gives the sense “Sarah” (Sara).
Vernacular form of the biblical Sara (“Sarah”). The word kala has also multiple meanings in Hawaiian.
/ˈka.la/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kala?
#9,762 among girls’ names, 2025
Kala fell from #4,652 in 2015 to #9,762 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 16.8 to 6.2 per million.
533 babies in 1989, the peak
Kala peaked in 1989, when 533 babies were given it (525 girls, #462 among girls’ names). The 10 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | #9,762 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 12 | #8,681 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 18 | #6,532 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 12 | #8,768 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 15 | #7,438 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 22 | #5,558 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 20 | #6,068 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 19 | #6,370 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 22 | #5,736 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 30 | #4,676 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (83)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 30 | #4,652 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 14 | #8,261 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 22 | #5,912 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 23 | #5,788 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 16 | #7,598 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 29 | #4,911 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 26 | #5,458 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 55 | #3,099 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 33 | #4,517 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 47 | #3,440 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 61 | #2,740 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 75 | #2,312 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 80 | #2,174 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 118 | #1,576 | 0.07 |
| 2001 | 136 | #1,400 | 0.08 |
| 2000 | 153 | #1,270 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 171 | #1,147 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 190 | #1,040 | 0.11 |
| 1997 | 209 | #948 | 0.12 |
| 1996 | 234 | #853 | 0.13 |
| 1995 | 308 | #692 | 0.18 |
| 1994 | 315 | #674 | 0.18 |
| 1993 | 351 | #638 | 0.19 |
| 1992 | 354 | #635 | 0.19 |
| 1991 | 426 | #551 | 0.23 |
| 1990 | 438 | #542 | 0.23 |
| 1989 | 525 | #462 | 0.28 |
| 1988 | 462 | #491 | 0.26 |
| 1987 | 381 | #530 | 0.22 |
| 1986 | 273 | #675 | 0.16 |
| 1985 | 223 | #766 | 0.13 |
| 1984 | 199 | #798 | 0.12 |
| 1983 | 277 | #624 | 0.17 |
| 1982 | 217 | #763 | 0.13 |
| 1981 | 54 | #1,970 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 53 | #1,989 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 49 | #2,063 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 54 | #1,847 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 51 | #1,933 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 44 | #2,011 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 36 | #2,294 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 41 | #2,041 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 35 | #2,245 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 27 | #2,631 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 50 | #1,784 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 38 | #2,140 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 37 | #2,075 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 24 | #2,574 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 31 | #2,147 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 27 | #2,324 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 25 | #2,431 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 30 | #2,218 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 34 | #2,037 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 30 | #2,186 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 30 | #2,171 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 30 | #2,123 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 21 | #2,547 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 23 | #2,413 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 16 | #2,980 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 15 | #3,117 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 19 | #2,585 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,117 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 15 | #2,869 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 17 | #2,616 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 6 | #5,127 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 8 | #4,129 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 7 | #4,442 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 10 | #3,466 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,691 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 8 | #3,820 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 5 | #4,891 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 8 | #3,535 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 7 | #3,997 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kala a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 7,772 Americans recorded as Kala, 99% are girls and 1% boys. In 2025 it went to 10 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kala: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kala, and how old are they?
7,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 7,772 Americans ever recorded as Kala. The median Kala alive today is 36 years old; half are between 30 and 40.
The 2020 Census counted 7,549 people named Kala (7,296 women and girls, 253 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,490 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 11 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 270 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 625 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,920 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,430 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 244 |
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 Kala born?
The states with the most babies named Kala are Texas, Ohio and California, with 20% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 427 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 332 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| California | 322 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 306 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Florida | 303 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 268 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Tennessee | 263 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Illinois | 257 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 255 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 248 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Kala is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kala is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1943 it was given 2.0 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 Kala 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 458,349 babies since 1880, Kala is the seventh most given (1.7% of them). In 2025 it was given to 10 of their 2,552 babies (<1%), the eighth 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 Kala
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 Kala and names like it
- Compare Kala and KaylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sKala peaked in 1989.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kala since 1910.
- The top names of 1989The year the most babies were named Kala.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kala alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.