Calum
Masculine · “dove”
Calum is the Scottish Gaelic form of the Latin Columba, "dove" — the name carried by the sixth-century missionary honored in Gaelic as Calum Cille, whose monastery on Iona sent Christianity across northern Britain. It is also the root buried inside Malcolm, from Máel Coluim, "devotee of Columba". Two syllables, both open and easy: KAL-um.
How old is the name Calum?
Calum first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Calum is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,500 people named Calum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Calum most popular?
Calum peaked in 2025, reaching #799 nationally. Today it ranks #799, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Columba to Calum
The story of Calum
The name begins as Latin Columba and attaches itself to one man: the sixth-century Irish monk who founded the monastery on Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, and is remembered in Gaelic as Calum Cille — "Columba of the church". His cult spread so widely through Ireland and Scotland that the name became a standard of Gaelic naming, and Scottish kings took the compound Máel Coluim, "devotee of Columba", which English rendered as Malcolm. Calum stayed the everyday Gaelic form, common in the Highlands and Islands, while the doubled spelling Callum grew dominant across Britain in the twentieth century. Its arrival in American records is recent, and quiet.
Meaning
dove
From Latin columba, "dove". The Gaelic form Calum comes directly from that Latin word rather than from a native Gaelic root.
How the name formed
- Columba
- Colum Cille
- Calum
- Callum
Related forms: Callum · Columba · Colm · Colum · Malcolm · Colum
Pronouncing Calum
KAL-um
First syllable as in "calendar", not "call". Identical in sound to the more widely seen spelling Callum, which means most people who mispronounce it are guessing from the single l.
Nicknames for Calum
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
- 1978
- Most boys named
- 2025313 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #799reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +20.8%313 in 2025, from 259
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.
Calum in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Callum in English — spelling variant
- Columba in Latin — same name
- Colm in Irish — related form
- Colum in Irish — related form
- Malcolm in Scots/English — related form
- Colum in Welsh — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Calums among us
people named Calum are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,457 born in 2025 was named Calum
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Calum
- #799
- Calum on the 2025 chart
- #108
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Calum went to 313 boys in 2025, but Callum, 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 — 691 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 496 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,457 for Calum 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 Eliot test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Calum's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eliot climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eliot's path sketches the road Calum is walking now.
Calum 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 Calum is headed
Calum 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.
Calum beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Calum in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented line running from Latin Columba through sixth-century Iona to the present — well over a thousand years without a break.
- Cal is a ready-made short form that already works as a name on its own in American English.
- Two syllables, six letters, no silent letters: readable on first sight by most English speakers.
- Recognizable across Scotland, Ireland and England, with close relatives in Colm, Columba and Malcolm.
- Callum, with two l's, is by far the more common spelling in Britain and Ireland. Expect a lifetime of gentle correction, and of forms coming back doubled.
- In the US the name is still unfamiliar enough that some people will reach for "CALL-um" or hear "column" before they hear Calum.
- American use is a recent thing, so nearly everyone carrying this spelling here is still young — there are few adult Calums around to make it feel ordinary yet.
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What they receive
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Calum
Masculine · #799 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Calums are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,500 people named Calum are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Calum?
- Calum is one of 4 recorded spellings. Callum is the more common one — 2,995 births in 2025 against 313 for Calum.
- How popular is the name Calum in 2025?
- Calum ranks #799 among US boy names in 2025, with 313 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Calum?
- About 1 in every 5,457 US boys born in 2025 was named Calum — 313 in all.
- Will my child share the name Calum with classmates?
- Calum will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Calum
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Raylan#800 · Zeke#800 · Keith#800 · Kaisen#800 · Crue#797 · Thaddeus#797 · Everest#796 · Haziel#795
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Calum? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Calum and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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