Kalil
Masculine · “close friend”
Kalil is a friend, in the particular Arabic sense: a khalil is not an acquaintance but the person you are bound to. Abraham is called the friend of God in that word, and the city of Hebron is named for it in Arabic. This spelling drops the kh and writes a plain k.
How old is the name Kalil?
Kalil first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Kalil alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,300 people named Kalil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kalil most popular?
Kalil peaked in 2000, reaching #1782 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 3,426 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From khalil to Kalil
The story of Kalil
The word has been a name across the Arabic-speaking world since early Islamic times, given by Muslim and Christian Arab families alike; a Lebanese-American writer of the early twentieth century carried it and made the spelling Kahlil familiar in English. It entered Black American naming in the nineteen-sixties and seventies as part of a wider taking-up of Arabic names, and Kalil, Khalil and Kahlil all appear in American records from those decades.
Meaning
close friend; beloved companion
Arabic khalil, an intimate friend, from a root about penetrating, so a friendship that has got inside a person. Abraham's title Khalil Allah, friend of God, is why Hebron is called al-Khalil in Arabic.
How the name formed
- khalil
- Khalil
- Kalil
Related forms: خليل · Khalil · Halil · Khalil
Pronouncing Kalil
kuh-LEEL
Two syllables with the stress at the end, the second held long. Arabic begins with a kh made at the back of the throat, which this spelling does not try to write.
Nicknames for Kalil
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
- 1977
- Most boys named
- 200061 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1782reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −18.2%18 in 2025, from 22
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.
Kalil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- خليل in Arabic — transliteration
- Khalil in English — spelling variant
- Halil in Turkish — same name
- Khalil in Urdu — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia.
Kalils among us
people named Kalil are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Kalil
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kalil
- #5208
- Kalil on the 2025 chart
- #355
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kalil went to 18 boys in 2025, but Khalil, Calil and Khalyl are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 857, which makes it the 355th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,853 places above the chart.
- Khalil826
- Kalil18
- Calil8
- Khalyl5
About 1 boy in 1,993 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,893 for Kalil 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 Juventino test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kalil's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Juventino climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Juventino's path sketches the road Kalil is walking now.
Kalil 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
Kalil beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kalil in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is warm, precise and easy to state in three words.
- Kal works as a short form and is entirely familiar in English.
- It is recognized across the Arab world and in Black American communities alike.
- Khalil is the standard transliteration and this spelling will be corrected often.
- Kalil, Khalil and Kahlil are all in use, so records within a family may differ.
- The kh is a single Arabic sound that a plain k does not represent.
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What they receive
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Kalil
Masculine · #5208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kalils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Kalil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kalil?
- Kalil is one of 4 recorded spellings. Khalil is the more common one — 826 births in 2025 against 18 for Kalil.
- How popular is the name Kalil in 2025?
- Kalil ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kalil?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Kalil — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kalil with classmates?
- Kalil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kalil
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kalil? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kalil and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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