Kalem
Kalem was given to 9 boys in 2025, #8,577 among boys’ names; 965 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kalem by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kalem?
#8,577 among boys’ names, 2025
Kalem fell from #3,635 in 2015 to #8,577 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 15.7 to 5.3 per million.
38 babies in 2017, the peak
Kalem peaked in 2017, when 38 boys were given it, #3,099 among boys’ names. The 9 births of 2025 are 24% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #8,577 | 5.3 |
| 2024 | 13 | #6,632 | 7.5 |
| 2023 | 19 | #5,157 | 11.1 |
| 2022 | 27 | #4,040 | 15.5 |
| 2021 | 23 | #4,433 | 13.1 |
| 2020 | 30 | #3,612 | 17.4 |
| 2019 | 33 | #3,455 | 18.4 |
| 2018 | 27 | #3,936 | 14.9 |
| 2017 | 38 | #3,099 | 20.5 |
| 2016 | 29 | #3,731 | 15.3 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 30 | #3,635 | 15.7 |
| 2014 | 35 | #3,181 | 18.2 |
| 2013 | 29 | #3,618 | 15.3 |
| 2012 | 24 | #4,198 | 12.7 |
| 2011 | 19 | #4,904 | 10.0 |
| 2010 | 22 | #4,439 | 11.5 |
| 2009 | 34 | #3,295 | 17.1 |
| 2008 | 28 | #3,784 | 13.7 |
| 2007 | 21 | #4,571 | 10.1 |
| 2006 | 23 | #4,156 | 11.2 |
| 2005 | 14 | #5,726 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 17 | #4,888 | 8.6 |
| 2003 | 22 | #3,901 | 11.1 |
| 2002 | 23 | #3,721 | 11.8 |
| 2001 | 12 | #5,844 | 6.2 |
| 2000 | 15 | #4,909 | 7.6 |
| 1999 | 20 | #3,763 | 10.4 |
| 1998 | 23 | #3,342 | 12.0 |
| 1997 | 25 | #3,023 | 13.3 |
| 1996 | 16 | #4,092 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 17 | #3,762 | 8.9 |
| 1994 | 11 | #5,268 | 5.7 |
| 1993 | 18 | #3,569 | 9.2 |
| 1992 | 10 | #5,435 | 5.0 |
| 1991 | 24 | #2,780 | 11.9 |
| 1990 | 20 | #3,114 | 9.7 |
| 1989 | 23 | #2,731 | 11.5 |
| 1988 | 19 | #2,907 | 9.9 |
| 1987 | 12 | #3,853 | 6.4 |
| 1986 | 10 | #4,296 | 5.4 |
| 1985 | 13 | #3,508 | 7.0 |
| 1984 | 10 | #4,065 | 5.5 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,190 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 17 | #2,769 | 9.4 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,866 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 9 | #4,317 | 5.0 |
| 1979 | 8 | #4,625 | 4.6 |
| 1977 | 15 | #2,842 | 9.1 |
| 1976 | 10 | #3,604 | 6.4 |
| 1974 | 6 | #4,936 | 3.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kalem a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kalem has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 50 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kalem: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kalem, and how old are they?
An estimated 941 Americans named Kalem and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 10 and 31. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 708 people named Kalem (22 women and girls, 686 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 835 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% 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.
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 6,852 babies since 1880, Kalem is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 9 of their 513 babies (1.8%), 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 Kalem
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 Kalem and names like it
- Compare Kalem and CalumBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKalem peaked in 2017.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kalem since 1910.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Kalem.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kalem alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.