Caleigh
Feminine
Caleigh is one of a dozen American spellings of a single very popular sound, and it has a genuine Irish neighbor that families often have in mind: céilí, the evening gathering with music and dancing.
How old is the name Caleigh?
Caleigh first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Caleigh alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 5,700 people named Caleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Caleigh most popular?
Caleigh peaked in 1999, reaching #702 nationally. Today it ranks #3459, 2,757 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Caleigh
Ours, offered as ours. The Irish céilí is worth knowing about whether or not it is the source. The word began as the plain act of calling on a neighbor after dark and grew into the name for a whole evening — fiddles, a cleared floor, a house full of people. That is a very good thing for a name to stand near. Caleigh almost certainly came from Cal plus an American ending rather than from Ireland, and both facts can be held at once.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source is established for the compound. Irish céilí is a real word — a social visit, and then a house gathering with music — and is a genuine near-neighbor. The English surname Caley and the shortening of Caroline are two others. The modern American name is generally a construction from Cal- and the -eigh ending.
Pronouncing Caleigh
KAY-lee
Two syllables, first stressed. Some families say KAL-ee, and the spelling does not settle it.
Nicknames for Caleigh
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
- 1999322 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #702reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −31.3%44 in 2025, from 64
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.
Caleigh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Céilí in Irish — related form
- Kaylee in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, North Carolina.
Caleighs among us
people named Caleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 36,529 born in 2025 was named Caleigh
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Caleigh
- #3459
- Caleigh on the 2025 chart
- #832
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Caleigh went to 44 girls in 2025, but Kaleigh, Calleigh and Kalleigh are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 128, which makes it the 832nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,627 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 12,557 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 36,529 for Caleigh 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 Gisele test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Caleigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gisele climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gisele's path sketches the road Caleigh is walking now.
Caleigh 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 Caleigh is headed
Caleigh 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.
Caleigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Caleigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Cal and Leigh are both complete short forms that stand on their own.
- The sound is entirely familiar everywhere in the English-speaking world.
- The Irish céilí is a genuinely good thing to stand near.
- The first vowel is genuinely unsettled between KAY and KAL.
- Kaylee, Kayleigh, Caleigh and Cayley are four live spellings of one sound.
- There is no documented meaning for the compound.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Caleigh
Feminine · #3459 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Caleighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Caleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Caleigh?
- Caleigh is one of 4 recorded spellings. Kaleigh is the more common one — 56 births in 2025 against 44 for Caleigh.
- How popular is the name Caleigh in 2025?
- Caleigh ranks #3459 among US girl names in 2025, with 44 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Caleigh?
- About 1 in every 36,529 US girls born in 2025 was named Caleigh — 44 in all.
- Will my child share the name Caleigh with classmates?
- Caleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Caleigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janey#3459 · Devon#3459 · Nitya#3459 · Zayah#3459 · Lively#3459 · Kynsley#3459 · Anaiya#3459 · Ena#3459
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Caleigh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Caleigh and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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