Kale
Kale was given to 11 boys in 2025, #7,415 among boys’ names; 7,605 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,370 Americans named Kale and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 16 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kale by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kale mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Kale is “a male given name from English”
Borrowed from English Charles.
/ˈka.le/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kale?
#7,415 among boys’ names, 2025
Kale fell from #1,097 in 2015 to #7,415 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 92.3 to 6.4 per million.
567 babies in 2008, the peak
Kale peaked in 2008, when 567 babies were given it (544 boys, #504 among boys’ names). The 11 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #7,415 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 18 | #5,332 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 13 | #6,703 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 23 | #4,499 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 28 | #3,867 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 25 | #4,077 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 26 | #4,055 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 46 | #2,687 | 0.03 |
| 2017 | 62 | #2,176 | 0.03 |
| 2016 | 101 | #1,607 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (76)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 177 | #1,097 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 216 | #971 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 259 | #830 | 0.14 |
| 2012 | 325 | #722 | 0.17 |
| 2011 | 424 | #590 | 0.22 |
| 2010 | 423 | #591 | 0.22 |
| 2009 | 521 | #518 | 0.26 |
| 2008 | 544 | #504 | 0.27 |
| 2007 | 382 | #635 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 272 | #767 | 0.13 |
| 2005 | 264 | #754 | 0.13 |
| 2004 | 225 | #802 | 0.11 |
| 2003 | 184 | #906 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 179 | #903 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 158 | #974 | 0.08 |
| 2000 | 150 | #988 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 128 | #1,063 | 0.07 |
| 1998 | 137 | #996 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 103 | #1,170 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 93 | #1,208 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 94 | #1,192 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 107 | #1,078 | 0.06 |
| 1993 | 109 | #1,063 | 0.06 |
| 1992 | 100 | #1,099 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 91 | #1,153 | 0.05 |
| 1990 | 108 | #1,017 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 93 | #1,094 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 108 | #919 | 0.06 |
| 1987 | 119 | #858 | 0.06 |
| 1986 | 83 | #1,016 | 0.05 |
| 1985 | 92 | #955 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 65 | #1,125 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 49 | #1,339 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 42 | #1,502 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 51 | #1,300 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 43 | #1,455 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 37 | #1,585 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 44 | #1,402 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 36 | #1,559 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 32 | #1,659 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 36 | #1,489 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 30 | #1,635 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 32 | #1,528 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 20 | #2,049 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 27 | #1,726 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 28 | #1,639 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 16 | #2,181 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 16 | #2,069 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 13 | #2,294 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 9 | #2,880 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #3,402 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 9 | #2,963 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 14 | #2,257 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 16 | #2,080 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #3,228 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 9 | #2,969 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,281 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #3,417 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,406 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 12 | #2,435 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,085 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,001 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 6 | #3,162 | under 0.01 |
| 1937 | 5 | #3,794 | under 0.01 |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,672 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 6 | #3,760 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kale a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 7,605 Americans recorded as Kale, 3% are girls and 97% boys. In 2025 it went to 11 boys; SSA lists no girls 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 Kale: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kale, and how old are they?
7,370 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 7,605 Americans ever recorded as Kale. The median Kale alive today is 20 years old; half are between 16 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 7,379 people named Kale (410 women and girls, 6,969 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,318 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 | 4 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 72 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 386 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,400 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,510 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,000 |
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 Kale born?
The states with the most babies named Kale are Texas, California and Missouri, with 22% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Missouri is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 390 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| California | 364 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Missouri | 327 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| Kansas | 309 | not ranked | 3.8× |
| Oklahoma | 288 | not ranked | 2.9× |
| Iowa | 284 | not ranked | 3.3× |
| Illinois | 260 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 215 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Washington | 209 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Indiana | 196 | not ranked | 1.1× |
Where Kale is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kale is most over-represented in Montana: since 1917 it was given 4.2 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 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 Kale 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 19,805 babies since 1880, Kale is the second most given (38% of them). In 2025 it was given to 11 of their 431 babies (2.6%), 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 Kale
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 Kale and names like it
- Compare Kale and CaleBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKale peaked in 2008.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kale since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Kale: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Kale.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kale alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.