Kelani
Kelani was given to 137 girls in 2025, #1,542 among girls’ names; 1,774 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,760 Americans named Kelani and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kelani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kelani?
#1,542 among girls’ names, 2025
Kelani rose from #3,950 in 2015 to #1,542 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 21.3 to 85.2 per million.
189 babies in 2020, the peak
Kelani peaked in 2020, when 189 babies were given it (182 girls, #1,252 among girls’ names). The 137 births of 2025 are 72% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 137 | #1,542 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 168 | #1,360 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 141 | #1,520 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 165 | #1,390 | 0.10 |
| 2021 | 147 | #1,464 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 182 | #1,252 | 0.11 |
| 2019 | 124 | #1,691 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 113 | #1,805 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 92 | #2,101 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 56 | #2,995 | 0.03 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 38 | #3,950 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 19 | #6,589 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 23 | #5,741 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 20 | #6,472 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 19 | #6,724 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 22 | #6,066 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 21 | #6,426 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 18 | #7,221 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 16 | #7,906 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 13 | #8,993 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 19 | #6,407 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 15 | #7,612 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,785 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 10 | #9,876 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 14 | #7,525 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,365 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 13 | #7,463 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,694 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 6 | #12,903 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 8 | #10,037 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 12 | #7,277 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 8 | #10,016 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 7 | #11,055 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 6 | #12,082 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,362 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,350 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #9,981 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kelani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,774 Americans recorded as Kelani, 96% are girls and 4% boys. In 2025 it went to 137 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kelani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kelani, and how old are they?
1,760 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,774 Americans ever recorded as Kelani. The median Kelani alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 826 people named Kelani (756 women and girls, 70 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 863 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 9 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 49 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 251 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,450 |
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 Kelani born?
The states with the most babies named Kelani are Texas, Georgia and Florida, with 46% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 17 | #1,436 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 13 | #774 | 2.0× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,208 | 1.5× |
| Louisiana | 10 | #456 | 1.6× |
| Alabama | 7 | #678 | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,360 | 1.3× |
| Indiana | 6 | #984 | 0.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,312 | 0.2× |
| Mississippi | 5 | #587 | 2.1× |
| Virginia | 5 | #1,287 | 0.5× |
Where Kelani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kelani is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1976 it was given 2.0 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 Kelani with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Kelani?
Kelani is a less common spelling of Kehlani: SSA has recorded 1,774 Kelani and 14,532 Kehlani since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 25,463 babies since 1880, Kelani is the third most given (7.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 137 of their 2,963 babies (4.6%), the fifth 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 Kelani
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 Kelani and names like it
- Compare Kelani and KehlaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKelani peaked in 2020.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kelani since 1910.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Kelani.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kelani alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.