Kayleah
Feminine
There is a real name hiding at the end of Kayleah. Leah is one of the oldest women's names in the Hebrew Bible, and a spelling that ends -leah has quietly absorbed it, whether or not anybody chose it on purpose.
How old is the name Kayleah?
Kayleah first appears in US birth records in 1987 — 38 years ago. The typical Kayleah alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 700 people named Kayleah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kayleah most popular?
Kayleah peaked in 2010, reaching #4608 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 1,938 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kayleah
Respellings sometimes do more than they intend. Kaylee has a dozen written forms and most of them change nothing at all, but this one changes what the word contains: Kayleah ends in four letters that spell a complete and very old name, and readers who know it will see it there. That is how folk etymology begins, and it is not a fault; English is full of words that acquired meanings by looking like other words, from crayfish to sparrowgrass. What is honest to say is that the Leah at the end of Kayleah was not the source, that Kaylee has no source, and that a family who likes the accidental result is entitled to keep it. Kayleah's best year in United States records is 2010, in the late tail of the Kaylee family's run.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Kaylee itself is a twentieth-century American coinage with no source language, built from the Kay- opening and a -lee ending. Adding the h produces a spelling that ends in Leah, the Hebrew name from Genesis usually read as weary or as wild cow, but that is a consequence of the spelling rather than a derivation. The name as a whole has no meaning.
Pronouncing Kayleah
KAY-lee
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The final h is silent; some families say kay-LEE-uh with three syllables, treating the ending as Leah, and that reading is growing.
Nicknames for Kayleah
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
- 1987
- Most girls named
- 201031 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4608reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- +41.7%17 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.
Kayleah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kaylee in English — spelling variant
- Kayleigh in English — spelling variant
Kayleahs among us
people named Kayleah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Kayleah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kayleah
- #6546
- Kayleah on the 2025 chart
- #850
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kayleah went to 17 girls in 2025, but Kailea, Kaileah and Kaylea are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 110, which makes it the 850th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,696 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 14,612 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Kayleah 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 Halona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kayleah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Halona climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Halona's path sketches the road Kayleah is walking now.
Kayleah 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
Kayleah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kayleah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two ready short forms, Kay and Leah, both complete names in their own right.
- Immediately familiar to every American ear.
- The ending supplies a genuine biblical name by accident.
- Kaylee and Kayleigh are both far more common spellings.
- Two- and three-syllable readings both circulate for this spelling.
- The name itself has no meaning; only the accidental ending does.
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Kayleah
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kayleahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Kayleah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kayleah?
- Kayleah is one of 4 recorded spellings. Kailea is the more common one — 58 births in 2025 against 17 for Kayleah.
- How popular is the name Kayleah in 2025?
- Kayleah ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kayleah?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Kayleah — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kayleah with classmates?
- Kayleah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kayleah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kayleah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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