Kalib
Masculine · “Hebrew kelev”
Twelve men were sent to look at the land and ten came back saying it could not be taken. Caleb and Joshua disagreed, were outvoted, and were the only two of that entire generation permitted to enter it forty years later.
How old is the name Kalib?
Kalib first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Kalib alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,500 people named Kalib are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kalib most popular?
Kalib peaked in 2002, reaching #1483 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 8,231 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kelev to Kalib
The story of Kalib
Numbers 13 sends one man from each tribe into Canaan for forty days. They return with a single cluster of grapes carried on a pole between two men, and ten of them report fortified cities and giants and say the people cannot go up. Caleb quiets the crowd and says they are well able; Joshua supports him. The community sides with the majority, and the punishment in the narrative is forty years in the wilderness, one for each day of the reconnaissance, until that generation has died. Caleb and Joshua are exempted by name. Caleb reappears in Joshua 14 at eighty-five, asking for the hill country he was promised and saying he is as strong as he was at forty. The story is one of the Bible's clearest treatments of a minority report, and both dissenters are named and vindicated.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew kelev, a dog
Kalib is a respelling of Caleb, Hebrew Kalev, generally connected to kelev, a dog, understood as faithful rather than as an insult; an alternative derivation from words for heart has been proposed. He is one of the twelve spies in Numbers 13. The peak of this spelling is 2002.
How the name formed
- kelev
- Kalev
- Caleb
- Kalib
Related forms: Caleb · Kalev
Pronouncing Kalib
KAY-lib
Two syllables, stress on the first. Kalib and Caleb are homophones; the K and i are both respellings of the same sounds.
Nicknames for Kalib
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 200696 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1483reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- −41.7%7 in 2025, from 12
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.
Kalib in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caleb in English — spelling variant
- Kalev in Hebrew — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida.
Kalibs among us
people named Kalib are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Kalib
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Graylin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kalib's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Graylin climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Graylin's path sketches the road Kalib is walking now.
Kalib 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
Kalib beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kalib in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Cal is available as a short form and is a familiar name.
- The biblical figure is unusually admirable.
- Two syllables with a firm first-syllable stress.
- Caleb is overwhelmingly the standard spelling.
- The usual reading of the Hebrew is dog.
- It will be corrected by most systems.
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Kalib
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kalibs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Kalib are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kalib in 2025?
- Kalib ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kalib?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Kalib — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kalib with classmates?
- Kalib will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kalib
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kalib? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kalib and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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