Kalisha
Feminine
Kalisha ends in a syllable that came from one very well-known name. Aisha is Arabic, and it means living — the name of the Prophet Muhammad's wife, and one of the most-used women's names in the Muslim world. In twentieth-century America the ending detached and became available, and Tanisha, Lakisha, Nakisha and Kalisha all carry it.
How old is the name Kalisha?
Kalisha first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Kalisha alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 1,300 people named Kalisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kalisha most popular?
Kalisha peaked in 1978, reaching #1397 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 13,545 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kalisha
Aisha entered American naming through two channels at once in the middle of the last century: directly, among Muslim families, and indirectly, as part of a broader turn toward names that sounded African or Arabic rather than European. That second channel is what produced the -isha family. The tradition works by combining a small set of prefixes with a small set of endings, and it produces names that are immediately recognizable to people raised inside it and completely opaque to people outside it. Kalisha is a regular formation. What it gives up in inherited history it gains in belonging to one person rather than to a lineage.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The ending has a real source and the name does not inherit it. Arabic Aisha comes from a root meaning to live, and the name is usually read as living or alive. Detached from the rest of the word, the -isha carries a shape rather than a sense. The Ka- front is one of the standard first elements in this naming tradition and was chosen for sound. So the meaning is not established, which is the ordinary and honest position for a name built by combination.
Pronouncing Kalisha
kuh-LEE-shuh
kuh-LEE-shuh, three syllables, stress in the middle, the sh soft. The spelling is unambiguous about all of it. Some say KAL-ih-shuh with the weight at the front, which is heard less often and is not what the ending suggests.
Nicknames for Kalisha
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 197883 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1397reached in 1978
- Change vs 2023
- −16.7%5 in 2025, from 6
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.
Kalisha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عائشة in Arabic — transliteration
- Aisha in Arabic — related form
Kalishas among us
people named Kalisha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Kalisha
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 Sharion test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kalisha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sharion climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sharion's path sketches the road Kalisha is walking now.
Kalisha 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
Kalisha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kalisha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Every letter behaves as an English reader expects, so the name is said right on first sight.
- Lisha and Kali are both usable short forms and they sound like two different names.
- It belongs to a recognizable American naming tradition with its own internal logic rather than to no tradition at all.
- There is no documented meaning to hand a child, and the Arabic sense belongs to Aisha rather than transferring here.
- Kalysha, Kaleesha and Calisha are all plausible spellings of the same sound, so it has to be spelled out.
- The -isha ending dates the name to a particular stretch of the last century about as precisely as any ending can.
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What they receive
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Kalisha
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kalishas 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 Kalisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kalisha in 2025?
- Kalisha ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kalisha?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Kalisha — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kalisha with classmates?
- Kalisha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kalisha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kalisha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kalisha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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