Kela
Kela was last recorded in 2016, when 8 babies were given it; 901 Americans have been recorded with it between 1950 and 2016 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kela?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #12,327, in 2016; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
32 babies in 1994, the peak
Kela peaked in 1994, when 32 girls were given it, #3,482 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 8 | #12,327 | 4.5 |
| 2011 | 7 | #14,065 | 4.0 |
| 2009 | 7 | #14,467 | 3.8 |
| 2008 | 10 | #11,209 | 5.3 |
| 2007 | 12 | #9,853 | 6.2 |
| 2006 | 9 | #11,933 | 4.7 |
| 2005 | 15 | #7,710 | 8.1 |
| 2004 | 14 | #8,026 | 7.6 |
| 2003 | 15 | #7,396 | 8.2 |
| 2002 | 19 | #6,008 | 10.6 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 14 | #7,524 | 7.8 |
| 2000 | 25 | #4,714 | 13.8 |
| 1999 | 22 | #4,938 | 12.4 |
| 1998 | 20 | #5,243 | 11.3 |
| 1997 | 28 | #3,946 | 16.1 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,807 | 12.0 |
| 1995 | 22 | #4,603 | 12.5 |
| 1994 | 32 | #3,482 | 17.9 |
| 1993 | 27 | #3,923 | 14.9 |
| 1992 | 21 | #4,765 | 11.4 |
| 1991 | 19 | #5,085 | 10.1 |
| 1990 | 27 | #3,841 | 14.2 |
| 1989 | 31 | #3,352 | 16.8 |
| 1988 | 23 | #3,950 | 12.9 |
| 1987 | 17 | #4,768 | 9.8 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,844 | 9.3 |
| 1985 | 25 | #3,463 | 14.5 |
| 1984 | 16 | #4,598 | 9.5 |
| 1983 | 17 | #4,365 | 10.2 |
| 1982 | 24 | #3,475 | 14.2 |
| 1981 | 23 | #3,570 | 13.8 |
| 1980 | 19 | #4,060 | 11.4 |
| 1979 | 28 | #3,031 | 17.4 |
| 1978 | 21 | #3,562 | 13.7 |
| 1977 | 24 | #3,221 | 15.7 |
| 1976 | 21 | #3,343 | 14.3 |
| 1975 | 27 | #2,771 | 18.5 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,120 | 10.2 |
| 1973 | 22 | #3,067 | 15.1 |
| 1972 | 15 | #3,983 | 9.9 |
| 1971 | 21 | #3,209 | 12.6 |
| 1970 | 17 | #3,641 | 9.7 |
| 1969 | 13 | #4,055 | 7.7 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,541 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 8 | #5,191 | 4.8 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,151 | 3.5 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,341 | 5.7 |
| 1964 | 7 | #5,728 | 3.7 |
| 1963 | 8 | #5,071 | 4.2 |
| 1961 | 5 | #7,033 | 2.5 |
| 1960 | 5 | #6,818 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,748 | 3.0 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,804 | 2.8 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,522 | 4.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kela, and how old are they?
An estimated 863 Americans named Kela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 38 years old and half are between 29 and 49. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 967 people named Kela (912 women and girls, 55 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 873 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 724,558 babies since 1880, Kela is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 1,495 babies recorded by SSA was a Kela (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 Kela
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 Kela and names like it
- Compare Kela and KellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKela peaked in 1994.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kela since 1910.
- The top names of 1994The year the most babies were named Kela.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kela alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.