Kayley
Kayley was given to 45 girls in 2025, #3,428 among girls’ names; 8,586 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,470 Americans named Kayley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 17 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kayley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kayley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kayley is “a female given name transferred from the surname, variant of Kaylee.”
/ˈkeɪli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kayley?
#3,428 among girls’ names, 2025
Kayley fell from #1,630 in 2015 to #3,428 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 73.9 to 28.0 per million.
461 babies in 1999, the peak
Kayley peaked in 1999, when 461 girls were given it, #548 among girls’ names. The 45 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 45 | #3,428 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 49 | #3,256 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 56 | #2,998 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 71 | #2,517 | 0.04 |
| 2021 | 63 | #2,738 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 80 | #2,248 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 65 | #2,667 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 97 | #2,020 | 0.06 |
| 2017 | 100 | #1,984 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 125 | #1,710 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 132 | #1,630 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 143 | #1,530 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 181 | #1,298 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 218 | #1,129 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 211 | #1,161 | 0.12 |
| 2010 | 231 | #1,080 | 0.13 |
| 2009 | 288 | #929 | 0.16 |
| 2008 | 349 | #821 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 338 | #841 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 383 | #733 | 0.20 |
| 2005 | 438 | #638 | 0.24 |
| 2004 | 411 | #669 | 0.22 |
| 2003 | 377 | #693 | 0.21 |
| 2002 | 332 | #734 | 0.18 |
| 2001 | 375 | #669 | 0.21 |
| 2000 | 388 | #645 | 0.21 |
| 1999 | 461 | #548 | 0.26 |
| 1998 | 446 | #555 | 0.25 |
| 1997 | 259 | #802 | 0.15 |
| 1996 | 256 | #804 | 0.15 |
| 1995 | 206 | #913 | 0.12 |
| 1994 | 235 | #848 | 0.13 |
| 1993 | 200 | #945 | 0.11 |
| 1992 | 197 | #970 | 0.11 |
| 1991 | 157 | #1,130 | 0.08 |
| 1990 | 142 | #1,198 | 0.07 |
| 1989 | 147 | #1,124 | 0.08 |
| 1988 | 103 | #1,376 | 0.06 |
| 1987 | 79 | #1,584 | 0.05 |
| 1986 | 66 | #1,759 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 39 | #2,514 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 17 | #4,407 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,461 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 9 | #7,153 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 9 | #7,052 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,338 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kayley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kayley has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kayley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kayley, and how old are they?
8,470 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,586 Americans ever recorded as Kayley. The median Kayley alive today is 23 years old; half are between 17 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 7,696 people named Kayley (7,681 women and girls, 15 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,157 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,830 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,440 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,200 |
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 Kayley born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7 | #2,639 | 0.9× |
| New York | 7 | #1,744 | 0.6× |
Where Kayley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kayley is most over-represented in North Carolina: since 1977 it was given 1.2 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 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 Kayley 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 582,115 babies since 1880, Kayley is the eighth most given (1.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 45 of their 2,609 babies (1.7%), the seventh 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 Kayley
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 Kayley and names like it
- Compare Kayley and KaylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKayley peaked in 1999.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kayley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kayley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Kayley.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kayley alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.