Kalena
Kalena was given to 50 girls in 2025, #3,186 among girls’ names; 2,707 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,670 Americans named Kalena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 11 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kalena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kalena mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Kalena is “a female given name from Hawaiian or English” Its etymology gives the senses “the” (ka) and “yellow” (lena).
ka (“the”) + lena (“yellow”).(Yellow was a royal color.) Later also used as a phonetic rendering of the English Karen.
/kaˈle.na/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kalena?
#3,186 among girls’ names, 2025
Kalena fell from #2,269 in 2015 to #3,186 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 46.5 to 31.1 per million.
97 babies in 2017, the peak
Kalena peaked in 2017, when 97 girls were given it, #2,025 among girls’ names. The 50 births of 2025 are 52% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 50 | #3,186 | 31.1 |
| 2024 | 58 | #2,869 | 35.8 |
| 2023 | 59 | #2,867 | 36.8 |
| 2022 | 45 | #3,508 | 27.4 |
| 2021 | 60 | #2,836 | 36.6 |
| 2020 | 71 | #2,454 | 43.9 |
| 2019 | 59 | #2,839 | 35.2 |
| 2018 | 65 | #2,662 | 38.2 |
| 2017 | 97 | #2,025 | 56.2 |
| 2016 | 77 | #2,422 | 43.5 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 83 | #2,269 | 46.5 |
| 2014 | 64 | #2,723 | 35.8 |
| 2013 | 65 | #2,695 | 37.0 |
| 2012 | 74 | #2,485 | 42.0 |
| 2011 | 49 | #3,330 | 27.9 |
| 2010 | 91 | #2,158 | 51.2 |
| 2009 | 77 | #2,474 | 41.9 |
| 2008 | 88 | #2,243 | 46.5 |
| 2007 | 69 | #2,660 | 35.9 |
| 2006 | 77 | #2,427 | 40.5 |
| 2005 | 86 | #2,148 | 46.5 |
| 2004 | 78 | #2,248 | 42.5 |
| 2003 | 81 | #2,152 | 44.3 |
| 2002 | 63 | #2,508 | 35.1 |
| 2001 | 67 | #2,364 | 37.2 |
| 2000 | 58 | #2,575 | 31.9 |
| 1999 | 59 | #2,446 | 33.3 |
| 1998 | 48 | #2,780 | 27.2 |
| 1997 | 44 | #2,791 | 25.3 |
| 1996 | 51 | #2,484 | 29.1 |
| 1995 | 44 | #2,748 | 25.0 |
| 1994 | 41 | #2,901 | 23.0 |
| 1993 | 49 | #2,546 | 27.1 |
| 1992 | 44 | #2,746 | 23.9 |
| 1991 | 37 | #3,051 | 19.7 |
| 1990 | 35 | #3,181 | 18.4 |
| 1989 | 24 | #4,058 | 13.0 |
| 1988 | 34 | #2,998 | 19.1 |
| 1987 | 35 | #2,807 | 20.1 |
| 1986 | 37 | #2,646 | 21.6 |
| 1985 | 29 | #3,119 | 16.9 |
| 1984 | 35 | #2,643 | 20.8 |
| 1983 | 49 | #2,053 | 29.3 |
| 1982 | 50 | #2,064 | 29.5 |
| 1981 | 18 | #4,225 | 10.8 |
| 1980 | 18 | #4,212 | 10.8 |
| 1979 | 19 | #3,961 | 11.8 |
| 1978 | 21 | #3,558 | 13.7 |
| 1977 | 15 | #4,513 | 9.8 |
| 1976 | 17 | #3,867 | 11.6 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,112 | 10.2 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,836 | 4.1 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,829 | 3.3 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,914 | 4.2 |
| 1969 | 5 | #7,971 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,009 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kalena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kalena has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 56 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kalena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kalena, and how old are they?
2,670 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,707 Americans ever recorded as Kalena. The median Kalena alive today is 20 years old; half are between 11 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 2,138 people named Kalena (2,102 women and girls, 36 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,352 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 121 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 595 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 848 |
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 Kalena born?
The states with the most babies named Kalena are California, Hawaii and Florida, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Hawaii is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7 | #2,633 | 1.1× |
| Hawaii | 7 | #124 | 28.5× |
| Florida | 6 | #2,017 | 0.6× |
Where Kalena is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kalena is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1962 it was given 28.5 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 Kalena 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 29,149 babies since 1880, Kalena is the fourth most given (9.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 50 of their 1,147 babies (4.4%), again the fourth most given.
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 Kalena
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 Kalena and names like it
- Compare Kalena and KalaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKalena peaked in 2017.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kalena since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kalena: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Kalena.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kalena alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.