Keala
Keala is given to both girls and boys: 11 girls and 6 boys were given it in 2025 (#9,158 among girls’ names and #11,356 among boys’, #11,595 among all names counting both); 881 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Keala by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Keala mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Keala is “a female or male given name from Hawaiian” Its etymology gives the senses “the” (ke) and “path” (ala).
ke (“the”) + ala (“path”), usually a short form of compound given names beginning thus.
/keˈa.la/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Keala?
#9,158 among girls’ names, 2025
Keala rose from #13,735 in 2015 to #9,158 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 3.9 to 6.8 per million.
50 babies in 2005, the peak
Keala peaked in 2005, when 50 girls were given it, #3,142 among girls’ names. The 17 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 34% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #9,158 | 6.8 |
| 2024 | 18 | #6,524 | 11.1 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,299 | 6.9 |
| 2022 | 14 | #7,834 | 8.5 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,693 | 5.5 |
| 2020 | 9 | #10,692 | 5.6 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,414 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 17 | #6,944 | 10.0 |
| 2017 | 10 | #10,343 | 5.8 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,745 | 6.2 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #13,735 | 3.9 |
| 2014 | 17 | #7,148 | 9.5 |
| 2013 | 10 | #10,628 | 5.7 |
| 2012 | 18 | #7,013 | 10.2 |
| 2011 | 19 | #6,721 | 10.8 |
| 2010 | 27 | #5,172 | 15.2 |
| 2009 | 15 | #8,245 | 8.2 |
| 2008 | 28 | #5,209 | 14.8 |
| 2007 | 32 | #4,615 | 16.6 |
| 2006 | 36 | #4,113 | 18.9 |
| 2005 | 50 | #3,142 | 27.1 |
| 2004 | 33 | #4,221 | 18.0 |
| 2003 | 22 | #5,503 | 12.0 |
| 2002 | 24 | #4,993 | 13.4 |
| 2001 | 24 | #4,908 | 13.3 |
| 2000 | 24 | #4,882 | 13.2 |
| 1999 | 18 | #5,772 | 10.1 |
| 1998 | 18 | #5,691 | 10.2 |
| 1997 | 16 | #6,019 | 9.2 |
| 1996 | 18 | #5,401 | 10.3 |
| 1995 | 21 | #4,757 | 11.9 |
| 1994 | 14 | #6,485 | 7.8 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,346 | 5.5 |
| 1992 | 14 | #6,466 | 7.6 |
| 1991 | 8 | #9,751 | 4.3 |
| 1990 | 17 | #5,391 | 9.0 |
| 1989 | 13 | #6,332 | 7.1 |
| 1988 | 12 | #6,458 | 6.7 |
| 1987 | 12 | #6,109 | 6.9 |
| 1986 | 12 | #5,942 | 7.0 |
| 1985 | 11 | #6,234 | 6.4 |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,511 | 5.9 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,619 | 4.8 |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,657 | 4.1 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,405 | 7.8 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,370 | 7.8 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,568 | 7.5 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,273 | 5.2 |
| 1977 | 10 | #6,076 | 6.5 |
| 1976 | 8 | #6,906 | 5.5 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,736 | 3.4 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,223 | 4.8 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,008 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,852 | 3.3 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,928 | 4.2 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,654 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 7 | #6,247 | 4.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Keala a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 881 Americans recorded as Keala, 97% are girls and 3% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Keala: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Keala, and how old are they?
An estimated 864 Americans named Keala and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 16 and 35. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 910 people named Keala (782 women and girls, 128 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 792 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 Keala born?
The states with the most babies named Keala are California, Hawaii and Washington, with 100% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Hawaii and Washington are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 115 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Hawaii | 87 | not ranked | 24.7× |
| Washington | 7 | not ranked | 0.4× |
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 Keala 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 672,227 babies since 1880, Keala is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 17 of their 1,169 babies (1.5%), 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 Keala
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 Keala and names like it
- Compare Keala and KellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKeala peaked in 2005.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keala since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Keala: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Keala.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Keala alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.