Kailea
Feminine
Kailea is built on Kai, which is one of the most genuinely international syllables in naming. Hawaiian, Japanese, Frisian, Welsh and Chinese all have a Kai, and none of them borrowed it from any of the others.
How old is the name Kailea?
Kailea first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Kailea alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 1,000 people named Kailea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kailea most popular?
Kailea peaked in 2025, reaching #2895 nationally. Today it ranks #2895, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kailea
Our story of Kailea is about a syllable that several unrelated languages arrived at independently. Kai is the sea in Hawaiian and a name in Frisian and the Arthurian seneschal in Welsh, and none of those knows about the others — which is exactly why the sound travels so well. Two letters, one open vowel, nothing a mouth has to work for. American naming found it and began building: Kai, Kaia, Kailee, Kailea, Kaiden. The ending here is English woodland and the opening belongs to everybody, and the join is recent enough that nobody has written it down. That is a fair description of most new names, told plainly.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The compound is not documented. Kai is real in several unrelated languages: Hawaiian kai is the sea; Japanese kai can be a shell or the ocean depending on the character; Frisian Kai is a form of Gerhard or Nikolaus; Welsh Cai is the Arthurian Sir Kay. The -lea ending is English, from leah, a woodland clearing, or simply a sound. Which of these Kailea was built from is unrecorded, and picking one would be a guess.
Pronouncing Kailea
ky-LEE-ah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. KY-lee, with two syllables and the stress at the front, is also heard from readers taking it as a spelling of Kaylee, and the name is new enough that neither has settled.
Nicknames for Kailea
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
- 202558 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2895reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +65.7%58 in 2025, from 35
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.
Kailea in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Hawaii, California, Texas.
Kaileas among us
people named Kailea are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,712 born in 2025 was named Kailea
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kailea
- #2895
- Kailea on the 2025 chart
- #850
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kailea went to 58 girls in 2025, but Kaileah, Kayleah and Kaylea are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 110, which makes it the 850th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,045 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 14,612 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 27,712 for Kailea 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 Abbagail test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kailea's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Abbagail climbed just as high around 2009, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Abbagail's path sketches the road Kailea is walking now.
Kailea 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 Kailea is headed
Kailea 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.
Kailea beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kailea in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kai and Lea are both ready short forms and both are established names elsewhere.
- Every sound in it is easy in English, so it is said correctly on sight.
- Three open syllables that balance a short or blunt surname well.
- It has no documented meaning, so anything offered for it has been supplied.
- Kailea, Kaylea, Kailee and Kaleah are all in use and none is standard.
- The two pronunciations both circulate, so the child will be correcting people.
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Kailea
Feminine · #2895 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaileas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Kailea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kailea?
- Kailea is the most-used spelling in US records — 58 of the 110 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kaileah, Kayleah and Kaylea.
- How popular is the name Kailea in 2025?
- Kailea ranks #2895 among US girl names in 2025, with 58 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kailea?
- About 1 in every 27,712 US girls born in 2025 was named Kailea — 58 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kailea with classmates?
- Kailea will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kailea
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Noora#2895 · Mylie#2895 · Vanellope#2895 · Amore#2895 · Miamor#2895 · Alyah#2895 · Alaska#2895 · Anastacia#2895
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kailea? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kailea and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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