Kaisley
Feminine
Kaisley is a genuinely new name: it appears in American records only in the twenty-first century, arriving alongside a whole family of -sley names that were already familiar to the ear. It is easy to say on first hearing because every part of it is borrowed from something people already know — the Kai and Kay that open it, the -sley that closes Paisley, Kinsley and Presley. Right now it is strongest across the South, and rare enough almost anywhere that a Kaisley is likely to be the only one in her school.
How old is the name Kaisley?
Kaisley first appears in US birth records in 2006 — 19 years ago. The typical Kaisley is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,800 people named Kaisley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaisley most popular?
Kaisley peaked in 2020, reaching #755 nationally. Today it ranks #1190, 435 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kaisley
Some names arrive by inheritance; this one arrived by assembly, and quite recently. Picture the ending first: -sley, worn smooth by Ainsley and Kinsley and Paisley, an ending that already sounded like a name before anyone attached it here. Then the front — Kai, Kay — short, bright, a syllable that has stood alone as a name in its own right for generations. Put them together and you get something no dictionary defines but every English speaker can pronounce on the first try. Kaisley belongs to the American South more than anywhere else so far, and its whole story is still being written by the children who carry it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Kaisley has no documented etymology — it is a modern American formation, not a word inherited from an older language. What is documented is its shape: the Kai-/Kay- opening found in Kai, Kayla and Kaylee, and the -sley ending of Paisley, Kinsley and Ainsley, which comes into names from English place and surname elements. Any translation offered for Kaisley online is invented rather than recorded.
Pronouncing Kaisley
KAYZ-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The -ai- sounds like the vowel in rain, and the s is voiced, so it lands closer to Kayz- than Kaiss-. A few people meeting it in print try KYE-slee, on the model of the German and Hawaiian Kai, so expect to correct that once.
Nicknames for Kaisley
High
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
- 2006
- Most girls named
- 2020360 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #755reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- −4.4%194 in 2025, from 203
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.
Kaisley in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Louisiana.
Kaisleys among us
people named Kaisley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,285 born in 2025 was named Kaisley
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaisley
- #1190
- Kaisley on the 2025 chart
- #718
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaisley went to 194 girls in 2025, but Caisley, Kaizley and Kaizlei are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 244, which makes it the 718th most-given girls’ name of the year — 472 places above the chart.
- Kaisley194
- Caisley24
- Kaizley21
- Kaizlei5
About 1 girl in 6,587 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,285 for Kaisley 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 Thyra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaisley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Thyra climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Thyra's path sketches the road Kaisley is walking now.
Kaisley 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 Kaisley is headed
Kaisley is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Kaisley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaisley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sits inside a sound family Americans already know — Paisley, Kinsley, Ainsley — so it is usually said correctly the first time it is heard.
- Ready-made short forms in Kai and Kay, both of which stand on their own as names.
- Uncommon enough that duplicates in a classroom are unlikely, without being a name no one can pronounce.
- Two clean syllables with the stress up front, which sits easily before most surnames.
- The spelling will need repeating. Kaysley, Kayslee, Caisley and Kaislee all exist, and none is the obvious default, so she will likely spell it aloud for life.
- There is no established meaning. If a documented origin or translation matters to you, this name cannot offer one — and anything presented online as its meaning was made up.
- Its record is entirely recent and currently easing back from its high point, so it reads as a name of one particular stretch of years rather than a name of any era.
- In noisy rooms it can be heard as Kinsley, Paisley or Kaylee, all of which are in wider use.
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Kaisley
Feminine · #1190 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaisleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Kaisley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaisley?
- Kaisley is the most-used spelling in US records — 194 of the 244 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Caisley, Kaizley and Kaizlei.
- How popular is the name Kaisley in 2025?
- Kaisley ranks #1190 among US girl names in 2025, with 194 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaisley?
- About 1 in every 8,285 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaisley — 194 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaisley with classmates?
- Kaisley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaisley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Keily#1190 · Aliah#1192 · Gitty#1192 · Angelique#1192 · Nori#1192 · Odessa#1192 · Maite#1192 · Evangelina#1186
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaisley? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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