Kalief
Kalief was last recorded in 2021, when 5 babies were given it; 203 Americans have been recorded with it between 1978 and 2021 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kalief by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kalief?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,076, in 2021; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1989, the peak
Kalief peaked in 1989, when 14 boys were given it, #3,906 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 | #13,076 | 2.9 |
| 2020 | 5 | #13,052 | 2.9 |
| 2019 | 5 | #13,115 | 2.8 |
| 2018 | 6 | #11,466 | 3.3 |
| 2013 | 5 | #13,085 | 2.6 |
| 2011 | 5 | #13,321 | 2.6 |
| 2008 | 7 | #10,457 | 3.4 |
| 1999 | 7 | #8,290 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 6 | #9,044 | 3.1 |
| 1997 | 5 | #10,017 | 2.7 |
Every recorded year (27)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 9 | #6,246 | 4.8 |
| 1995 | 11 | #5,320 | 5.8 |
| 1994 | 10 | #5,664 | 5.2 |
| 1993 | 7 | #7,200 | 3.6 |
| 1992 | 13 | #4,448 | 6.5 |
| 1991 | 9 | #5,733 | 4.5 |
| 1990 | 7 | #6,794 | 3.4 |
| 1989 | 14 | #3,906 | 7.0 |
| 1988 | 9 | #4,996 | 4.7 |
| 1987 | 12 | #3,854 | 6.4 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,639 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 6 | #6,158 | 3.2 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,825 | 2.8 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,193 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 5 | #6,856 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,714 | 3.5 |
| 1978 | 10 | #3,727 | 6.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kalief a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kalief has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 27 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kalief: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kalief, and how old are they?
An estimated 195 Americans named Kalief and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 34 years old and half are between 28 and 39. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 139 people named Kalief (0 women and girls, 139 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 188 born in the U.S. The Census count is 26% 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 2,510 babies since 1880, Kalief is the third most given (8.1% of them). In 2025 none of their 29 babies recorded by SSA was a Kalief (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Kalief
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 Kalief and names like it
- Compare Kalief and KhalifBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sKalief peaked in 1989.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kalief since 1910.
- The top names of 1989The year the most babies were named Kalief.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kalief alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.