Kalilah
Feminine · “beloved friend”
Kalilah is a beloved friend in Arabic — khalil, the intimate friend, and the title Islam gives Abraham: Khalilullah, the friend of God.
How old is the name Kalilah?
Kalilah first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Kalilah is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Kalilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kalilah most popular?
Kalilah peaked in 2025, reaching #1673 nationally. Today it ranks #1673, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From khalil to Kalilah
The story of Kalilah
Khalil and Khalilah are long-established across the Arabic-speaking world, and Kalila wa-Dimna, the Arabic version of the Panchatantra fables, carries the name into one of the most-copied books of the medieval world. Arab emigration brought it to America, where Kalilah appears in the registers and is in current use.
Meaning
beloved friend, intimate
From the Arabic khalilah, the feminine of khalil, 'close friend' or 'beloved companion', from a root about intimate penetration of the heart. Abraham's title Khalilullah, 'friend of God', uses the same word. A separate Hebrew Kelila, 'crown', is sometimes conflated with it. The Arabic is undisputed.
How the name formed
- khalil
- khalilah
- Kalilah
Related forms: خليلة · Khalilah · Kelila
Pronouncing Kalilah
kuh-LEE-lah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Arabic begins it with a kh, a throat sound English flattens to k.
Nicknames for Kalilah
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
- 1976
- Most girls named
- 2025123 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1673reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +17.1%123 in 2025, from 105
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.
Kalilah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- خليلة in Arabic — transliteration
- Khalilah in English — spelling variant
- Kelila in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Indiana, Florida.
Kalilahs among us
people named Kalilah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 13,067 born in 2025 was named Kalilah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kalilah
- #1673
- Kalilah on the 2025 chart
- #702
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kalilah went to 123 girls in 2025, but Kalila, Khalilah and Khalyla and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 263, which makes it the 702nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 971 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 6,111 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 13,067 for Kalilah 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 Kaylei test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kalilah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kaylei climbed just as high around 2006, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kaylei's path sketches the road Kalilah is walking now.
Kalilah is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kalilah is headed
Kalilah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 50% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Kalilah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kalilah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The beloved-friend meaning is transparent, undisputed and genuinely warm.
- Abraham's Islamic title uses the same word, which is real weight.
- Lila and Kali are two short forms, both names in their own right.
- The Arabic kh has no English equivalent and is usually lost.
- Khalilah is the fuller transliteration and both are in use.
- The Hebrew Kelila is a separate name often confused with it.
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What they receive
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Kalilah
Feminine · #1673 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kalilahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Kalilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kalilah?
- Kalilah is the most-used spelling in US records — 123 of the 263 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kalila, Khalilah, Khalyla, Kalyla, Khalila, Calilah and Kalylah.
- How popular is the name Kalilah in 2025?
- Kalilah ranks #1673 among US girl names in 2025, with 123 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kalilah?
- About 1 in every 13,067 US girls born in 2025 was named Kalilah — 123 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kalilah with classmates?
- Kalilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kalilah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maylin#1673 · Alannah#1673 · Camellia#1673 · Miya#1673 · Adrienne#1673 · Vamika#1673 · Denise#1673 · Shoshana#1673
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kalilah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kalilah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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