Kahlil
Masculine · “friend”
Kahlil is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,283 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Khalil is a friend in Arabic — and Ibrahim is called Khalil Allah, the friend of God, which gives Hebron its Arabic name.
How old is the name Kahlil?
Kahlil first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Kahlil alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 4,200 people named Kahlil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kahlil most popular?
Kahlil peaked in 1995, reaching #629 nationally. Today it ranks #2604, 1,975 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Kahlil appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From khalil to Kahlil
The story of Kahlil
Abraham is called the friend of God in the Qur'an and in James, and the city of Hebron, where he is buried, is called al-Khalil in Arabic — named for the epithet rather than the man. Kahlil Gibran's publisher respelled his name and it stuck. It appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
friend, close companion
From the Arabic khalil, 'friend' or 'intimate companion', from a root meaning to penetrate or interpenetrate — a friend as one who enters your life. Abraham is Khalil Allah, and Hebron is called al-Khalil for him. The Kahlil spelling follows Gibran. The Arabic is documented.
How the name formed
- khalil
- Khalil
- Kahlil
Related forms: خليل · Khalil · Halil
Pronouncing Kahlil
kah-LEEL
Two syllables, stress on the second. Arabic gives the kh a throat sound as in Bach.
Nicknames for Kahlil
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
- 1967
- Most boys named
- 1995268 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #629reached in 1995
- Change vs 2024
- −40.5%50 in 2025, from 84
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.
Kahlil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- خليل in Arabic — related form
- Khalil in English — spelling variant
- Halil in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Kahlils among us
people named Kahlil are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 34,162 born in 2025 was named Kahlil
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kahlil
- #2604
- Kahlil on the 2025 chart
- #872
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kahlil went to 50 boys in 2025, but Cahlil is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 56, which makes it the 872nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,732 places above the chart.
- Kahlil50
- Cahlil6
About 1 boy in 30,501 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 34,162 for Kahlil 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 Aurelio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kahlil's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aurelio climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aurelio's path sketches the road Kahlil is walking now.
Kahlil 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 Kahlil is headed
Kahlil should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Kahlil beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kahlil in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That a city is named for the epithet 'friend of God' is a first-rate fact.
- Kahlil Gibran is a first-rate bearer of this spelling.
- The end stress gives it a strong rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- Khalil is the standard transliteration.
- The Arabic kh is not reproducible in English.
- The spelling exists because of a publisher's error.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kahlil
Masculine · #2604 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kahlils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Kahlil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kahlil?
- Kahlil is the most-used spelling in US records — 50 of the 56 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Cahlil.
- How popular is the name Kahlil in 2025?
- Kahlil ranks #2604 among US boy names in 2025, with 50 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kahlil?
- About 1 in every 34,162 US boys born in 2025 was named Kahlil — 50 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kahlil with classmates?
- Kahlil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kahlil
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yahia#2604 · Larson#2604 · Mazin#2604 · Rowe#2604 · Hendrik#2604 · Dayvon#2604 · Kipton#2604 · Finlay#2604
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kahlil? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kahlil and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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