Cailey
Feminine
Cailey sits on top of a word that many families using it do not know is there. Irish céilí is a gathering with music and dancing — a real and living word, still the name for the event — and it is pronounced almost exactly as this name is. Whether that is the source or a coincidence depends on the family, because Cailey is also just Kaylee with a C.
How old is the name Cailey?
Cailey first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Cailey alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 3,800 people named Cailey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cailey most popular?
Cailey peaked in 1998, reaching #1024 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 5,814 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Where it comes from
From céilí to Cailey
The story of Cailey
The Kaylee family is one of the largest respelling clusters in American naming, with more than a dozen live spellings and no agreed parent name. Kayley, Kaylee, Caleigh, Kaleigh, Cayley and Cailey all appear within a few years of each other in the 1980s and 1990s. Cailey's particular form uses the ai digraph rather than ay, which is the spelling English uses for the same sound in the middle of a word — as in sail — and which makes the name look more like an Irish borrowing than the ay spellings do. It peaked in 1998, at the crest of the whole family.
Meaningscholars disagree
Possibly Irish "a social gathering with music and dance"
Céilí and céilidh are genuine Irish and Scottish Gaelic words, from a root meaning companion or visit. Whether the given name derives from them is disputed: the name entered American use in the 1990s alongside dozens of Kay-lee spellings that clearly derive from Kayla, Kelly and Hayley rather than from Gaelic. Some families intend the Irish word, most probably do not, and no single reading can be asserted for all bearers.
How the name formed
- céilí
- Cayley
- Cailey
Related forms: Céilí · Cèilidh
Pronouncing Cailey
KAY-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The ai is a plain long A. The Irish céilí is stressed the same way, KAY-lee, which is why the two are so easily conflated.
Nicknames for Cailey
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1984
- Most girls named
- 1999198 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1024reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%16 in 2025, from 24
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cailey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Céilí in Irish — related form
- Cèilidh in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Caileys among us
people named Cailey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Cailey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cailey
- #6838
- Cailey on the 2025 chart
- #726
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cailey went to 16 girls in 2025, but Kailey, Kayley and Kaylei and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 236, which makes it the 726th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,112 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 6,810 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Cailey itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Talitha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cailey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Talitha climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Talitha's path sketches the road Cailey is walking now.
Cailey sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Cailey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cailey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The sound is one of the most familiar in modern American naming.
- It offers a genuine Irish cultural connection for families who want to claim it.
- It is warm and easy without being childish.
- There are more than a dozen live spellings of this sound and no default.
- The Irish derivation is not established, so the meaning cannot be stated as fact.
- The late-1990s peak dates it clearly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Cailey
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Caileys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,800 people named Cailey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cailey?
- Cailey is one of 5 recorded spellings. Kailey is the more common one — 153 births in 2025 against 16 for Cailey.
- How popular is the name Cailey in 2025?
- Cailey ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cailey?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Cailey — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cailey with classmates?
- Cailey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cailey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cailey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cailey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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