Kaleah
Feminine
Kaleah has been on the American record for decades now, never crowding the charts, never disappearing from them either. Three syllables that land softly, with the same -leah ending Leah has carried since the Hebrew Bible, and a first sound shared with Kay and Kayla. It is a name most English speakers can read aloud on sight, even if they have never met one.
How old is the name Kaleah?
Kaleah first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Kaleah is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,400 people named Kaleah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaleah most popular?
Kaleah peaked in 2013, reaching #1039 nationally. Today it ranks #1423, 384 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kaleah
Kaleah is an American name in the fullest sense: put together here, out of sounds this country already loved. Its opening belongs to Kay and Kayla, its close to Leah — two names with long records of their own — and it came into use in the same decades those were being handed out on every block. No dictionary claims it, no scholar has traced it, and its whole documented history is written in birth certificates rather than manuscripts. That is a real kind of pedigree. It means every Kaleah is close to the beginning of the name's story instead of somewhere in the middle of it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No dictionary or documented tradition assigns Kaleah a meaning. What is documented is where it lives: American birth records, from the late twentieth century onward, in the company of Kayla, Kalea, Kalia, Kaliyah and Leah. Some of those neighbors have origins of their own — Leah is Hebrew, Kalia is a place in Hawaii — but Kaleah's own line to any of them has not been established, and borrowing their meanings would be guesswork dressed as fact.
Pronouncing Kaleah
kuh-LEE-uh
The common American reading puts the stress on the middle syllable: kuh-LEE-uh. A second reading, kah-LAY-ah, follows the pattern of Kalea and is also heard. Neither has fully won, so whichever you choose is worth saying out loud early and often.
Nicknames for Kaleah
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 girls named
- 2013239 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1039reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −1.9%152 in 2025, from 155
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.
Kaleah in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kaleahs among us
people named Kaleah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,574 born in 2025 was named Kaleah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaleah
- #1423
- Kaleah on the 2025 chart
- #568
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaleah went to 152 girls in 2025, but Kalea, Caleah and Khalea and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 429, which makes it the 568th most-given girls’ name of the year — 855 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,747 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,574 for Kaleah 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 Laquisha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaleah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Laquisha climbed just as high around 1991, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Laquisha's path sketches the road Kaleah is walking now.
Kaleah 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 Kaleah is headed
Kaleah 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.
Kaleah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaleah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Built from pieces English speakers already know — the Kay- opening and the -leah ending — so most people get close on a first attempt.
- Has held a steady place in American records for decades rather than spiking on a trend and vanishing.
- Divides cleanly into Kay, Lea and Kali, all three of which are used as full given names elsewhere.
- Short in writing, easy for a child to spell early, with no silent letters or unusual clusters.
- Two pronunciations are genuinely in circulation, kuh-LEE-uh and kah-LAY-ah, and the spelling does not settle the question. Expect to correct people politely for a lifetime.
- The spelling sits among Kalea, Kalia, Kaliyah and Kayla, so forms and rosters will sometimes come back wrong. Spelling it out becomes a small habit rather than a hardship.
- No meaning has ever been documented for it. If having a translation to hand matters to you, this name will not offer one.
- Its bearers are overwhelmingly young, so for now it reads as a contemporary name rather than an inherited one — something that changes on its own as the first Kaleahs grow up.
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Kaleah
Feminine · #1423 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaleahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,400 people named Kaleah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaleah?
- Kaleah is one of 8 recorded spellings. Kalea is the more common one — 185 births in 2025 against 152 for Kaleah.
- How popular is the name Kaleah in 2025?
- Kaleah ranks #1423 among US girl names in 2025, with 152 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaleah?
- About 1 in every 10,574 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaleah — 152 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaleah with classmates?
- Kaleah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaleah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaira#1423 · Emry#1423 · Sybil#1423 · Sana#1427 · Evalyn#1427 · Aracely#1427 · Zarah#1427 · Desiree#1427
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaleah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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