Callum
Masculine · “dove”
Callum is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 16,051 boys against 38 girls since 1880.
Callum comes from the Latin word for dove, by way of a sixth-century Irish monk who sailed to Iona and gave Scotland one of its great names. In Gaelic it was Calum; the double-L spelling is the one that traveled into English, and it still ranks among the everyday boys' names of Scotland. Two syllables, a soft landing, and one obvious short form waiting inside it.
How old is the name Callum?
Callum first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Callum is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 16,000 people named Callum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Callum most popular?
Callum peaked in 2025, reaching #118 nationally. Today it ranks #118, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Columba to Callum
The story of Callum
The root is Latin columba, 'dove', which became the monastic name Columba — carried by the Irish abbot who founded the monastery on Iona in the sixth century and was known in Gaelic as Colum Cille, 'dove of the church'. His fame in the Gaelic world turned the name into a staple: Calum in Scottish Gaelic, Colm and Colum in Ireland, and, in the compound Máel Coluim, 'devotee of Columba', the source of Malcolm and of four medieval Scottish kings. Callum is the anglicized spelling of Calum, and it is the form that spread through Scotland and England in the twentieth century before reaching American birth records comparatively recently.
Meaning
dove
Through Scottish Gaelic Calum, from Latin columba, 'dove'.
Cultural footprint
Callum Turner (b. 1990) — Masters of the Air lead
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Columba
- Colum Cille
- Calum
- Callum
Related forms: Calum · Colm · Colum · Columba · Malcolm · Colomban
Pronouncing Callum
KAL-um
First syllable rhymes with 'pal'; the ending is a light -um, not -oom. Scottish speakers say it the same way whether it is spelled Callum or Calum.
Nicknames for Callum
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
- 1983
- Most boys named
- 20252,995 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #118reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +32.2%2,995 in 2025, from 2,266
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.
Callum in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Calum in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Colm in Irish — related form
- Colum in Irish — related form
- Columba in Latin — related form
- Malcolm in English (Scottish) — related form
- Colomban in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Callums among us
people named Callum are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 570 born in 2025 was named Callum
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Callum
- #118
- Callum on the 2025 chart
- #108
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Callum went to 2,995 boys in 2025, but Calum, Kallum and Kalum are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 3,445, which makes it the 108th most-given boys’ name of the year — 10 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 496 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 570 for Callum 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 Andre test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Callum's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Andre climbed just as high around 1984, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Andre's path sketches the road Callum is walking now.
Callum is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Callum is headed
Callum looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 56% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Callum beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Callum in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Meaning is settled and easy to say out loud: dove, through Gaelic Calum from Latin columba.
- Long unbroken record in Scotland, where it remains an ordinary everyday name rather than a revival.
- Spells itself once heard, and needs no explanation of how to pronounce it.
- Comes with one clear, established short form in Cal, plus the option of using the full name always.
- Sits in a documented family of names — Calum, Colm, Malcolm — if relatives elsewhere use a different form.
- Callum and Calum are both correct, and the single-L Gaelic spelling is common enough that you may be asked which one you meant, especially by anyone with Scottish or Irish connections.
- The name is climbing steadily in the US, so a child born now will likely meet more Callums as a teenager than as a toddler — rare at first, not necessarily rare for life.
- Cal is shared territory with Caleb, Calvin and Callan, and Callum itself is easily misheard as Callan or Cullen over a phone or in a noisy room.
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What they receive
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Callum
Masculine · #118 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Callums are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 16,000 people named Callum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Callum?
- Callum is the most-used spelling in US records — 2,995 of the 3,445 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Calum, Kallum and Kalum.
- How popular is the name Callum in 2025?
- Callum ranks #118 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,995 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Callum?
- About 1 in every 570 US boys born in 2025 was named Callum — 2,995 in all.
- Will my child share the name Callum with classmates?
- Callum will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Callum
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lorenzo#117 · Milo#119 · Harrison#116 · Graham#120 · Emmett#121 · Jaxon#115 · Jace#114 · Sawyer#122
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Callum? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Callum and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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