Cale
Masculine · “whole-hearted”
Cale is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 8,207 boys against 84 girls since 1880.
Cale is the short, blunt end of Caleb — one syllable, four letters, nothing spare. It arrived in American use the way most short forms do: first as what people already called a Caleb, then as the name on the certificate.
How old is the name Cale?
Cale first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Cale alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 7,900 people named Cale are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cale most popular?
Cale peaked in 1984, reaching #596 nationally. Today it ranks #2718, 2,122 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kalev to Cale
The story of Cale
The parent name is Hebrew and biblical: Caleb is one of the two scouts sent into Canaan who came back with a good report and was rewarded for it. It reached English through the Reformation, when English families began taking names straight out of the Hebrew scriptures rather than from the calendar of saints. Cale is the American trimming, made the same way Gabe was made from Gabriel and Nate from Nathaniel — and like those, it eventually stopped being a nickname and started being a name.
Meaningscholars disagree
whole-hearted, or dog — through Caleb
Cale has no separate etymology; it takes its meaning from Caleb, and Caleb's is genuinely unsettled. One reading takes it from Hebrew kelev, 'dog' — no insult in the ancient Near East, where a dog meant a faithful follower. The other splits it as kol lev, 'whole heart', which suits the Caleb of Numbers, praised for following wholeheartedly. Scholars still disagree, and both readings are old.
How the name formed
- Kalev
- Caleb
- Cale
Related forms: Kalev · Caleb
Pronouncing Cale
KAYL
One syllable, rhyming with pale. It is said exactly like Kale and Cael, which is the practical problem with it rather than the pronunciation itself.
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 2008395 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #596reached in 1984
- Change vs 2024
- +27.0%47 in 2025, from 37
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.
Cale in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kalev in Hebrew — related form
- Caleb in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Colorado, Missouri, Ohio.
Cales among us
people named Cale are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 36,342 born in 2025 was named Cale
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cale
- #2718
- Cale on the 2025 chart
- #870
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cale went to 47 boys in 2025, but Kale is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 58, which makes it the 870th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,848 places above the chart.
- Cale47
- Kale11
About 1 boy in 29,450 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 36,342 for Cale 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 Donal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cale's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Donal climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Donal's path sketches the road Cale is walking now.
Cale 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
Where Cale is headed
Cale should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Cale beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cale in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and instantly sayable, which pairs cleanly with a long surname.
- Caleb sits behind it as a full formal name if one is ever wanted.
- Short without being invented — it comes off a name with a documented biblical record.
- It sounds identical to Kale, and the vegetable's rise means the spelling will be queried for life.
- Cael, Kale and Cale are three live spellings of one sound, so this is a name that gets spelled out on the phone.
- As a trimmed form it can read as informal on paper, which is worth deciding before the certificate rather than after.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Cale
Masculine · #2718 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cales are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,900 people named Cale are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cale?
- Cale is the most-used spelling in US records — 47 of the 58 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kale.
- How popular is the name Cale in 2025?
- Cale ranks #2718 among US boy names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cale?
- About 1 in every 36,342 US boys born in 2025 was named Cale — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cale with classmates?
- Cale will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cale
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Einar#2718 · Kurtis#2718 · Sasha#2718 · Jovany#2718 · Ahsan#2718 · Xavien#2718 · Yassin#2718 · Unknown#2718
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cale? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cale and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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