Kali
Kali was given to 948 girls in 2025, #323 among girls’ names; 33,438 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 33,000 Americans named Kali and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 8 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kali by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kali mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kali is “a female given name from Sanskrit used especially in India.”
From Sanskrit काली (kālī) or कालिका (kālikā).
/ˈkɑːli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kali?
#323 among girls’ names, 2025
Kali fell from #267 in 2015 to #323 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.66 to 0.59 per 1,000.
1,353 babies in 2019, the peak
Kali peaked in 2019, when 1,353 babies were given it (1,312 girls, #242 among girls’ names). The 972 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 72% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 948 | #323 | 0.59 |
| 2024 | 1,073 | #295 | 0.66 |
| 2023 | 1,072 | #291 | 0.67 |
| 2022 | 1,228 | #250 | 0.75 |
| 2021 | 1,123 | #284 | 0.68 |
| 2020 | 1,181 | #253 | 0.73 |
| 2019 | 1,312 | #242 | 0.78 |
| 2018 | 1,208 | #274 | 0.71 |
| 2017 | 1,089 | #302 | 0.63 |
| 2016 | 1,086 | #300 | 0.61 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,187 | #267 | 0.66 |
| 2014 | 1,260 | #261 | 0.71 |
| 2013 | 872 | #363 | 0.50 |
| 2012 | 748 | #420 | 0.42 |
| 2011 | 602 | #493 | 0.34 |
| 2010 | 545 | #537 | 0.31 |
| 2009 | 602 | #501 | 0.33 |
| 2008 | 618 | #504 | 0.33 |
| 2007 | 668 | #486 | 0.35 |
| 2006 | 549 | #541 | 0.29 |
| 2005 | 554 | #526 | 0.30 |
| 2004 | 527 | #543 | 0.29 |
| 2003 | 494 | #564 | 0.27 |
| 2002 | 495 | #552 | 0.28 |
| 2001 | 592 | #469 | 0.33 |
| 2000 | 660 | #427 | 0.36 |
| 1999 | 763 | #375 | 0.43 |
| 1998 | 686 | #401 | 0.39 |
| 1997 | 800 | #348 | 0.46 |
| 1996 | 850 | #332 | 0.48 |
| 1995 | 756 | #348 | 0.43 |
| 1994 | 650 | #388 | 0.36 |
| 1993 | 595 | #421 | 0.33 |
| 1992 | 630 | #404 | 0.34 |
| 1991 | 560 | #453 | 0.30 |
| 1990 | 558 | #443 | 0.29 |
| 1989 | 472 | #499 | 0.26 |
| 1988 | 348 | #584 | 0.20 |
| 1987 | 346 | #573 | 0.20 |
| 1986 | 359 | #559 | 0.21 |
| 1985 | 329 | #591 | 0.19 |
| 1984 | 306 | #590 | 0.18 |
| 1983 | 206 | #777 | 0.12 |
| 1982 | 166 | #910 | 0.10 |
| 1981 | 129 | #1,084 | 0.08 |
| 1980 | 91 | #1,376 | 0.05 |
| 1979 | 53 | #1,957 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 68 | #1,587 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 61 | #1,706 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 45 | #1,981 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 62 | #1,594 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 65 | #1,505 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 34 | #2,283 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 47 | #1,814 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 61 | #1,577 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 30 | #2,472 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 16 | #3,523 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 9 | #4,931 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 12 | #3,940 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 9 | #4,649 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 6 | #6,121 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 10 | #4,480 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,180 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,539 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 5 | #7,021 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,412 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,808 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,128 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,723 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kali a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 33,438 Americans recorded as Kali, 97% are girls and 3% boys. In 2025 it went to 948 girls and 24 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kali: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kali, and how old are they?
33,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 33,438 Americans ever recorded as Kali. The median Kali alive today is 16 years old; half are between 8 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 23,482 people named Kali (22,786 women and girls, 696 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 26,607 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 47 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 759 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 7,210 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 10,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 15,000 |
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 Kali born?
The states with the most babies named Kali are Texas, California and Florida, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 91 | #378 | 0.7× |
| California | 69 | #487 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 69 | #277 | 1.0× |
| New York | 58 | #293 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 56 | #188 | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 56 | #194 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 47 | #237 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 41 | #268 | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 37 | #247 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 35 | #307 | 0.8× |
Where Kali is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kali is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1957 it was given 1.6 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 Kali 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 475,146 babies since 1880, Kali is the second most given (7.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 972 of their 2,906 babies (33%), the 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 Kali
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 Kali and names like it
- Compare Kali and KaylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKali peaked in 2019.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kali since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Kali: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Kali.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kali alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.