Kaylor
Masculine · “a charcoal burner”
Kaylor is given to both — 502 boys and 796 girls since 1880. See Kaylor as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Kaylor is most likely a German occupational surname wearing an American spelling. Kohler names a charcoal burner — one of the essential and least pleasant trades of pre-industrial Europe — and German surnames of that shape were respelled freely on arrival in America. Its peak is 1998.
How old is the name Kaylor?
Kaylor first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Kaylor alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 500 people named Kaylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaylor most popular?
Kaylor peaked in 1998, reaching #3597 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 2,546 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kohle to Kaylor
The story of Kaylor
German immigration to America was the largest single source of nineteenth-century arrival, and German surnames were respelled on a huge scale — sometimes by clerks, sometimes deliberately by families. Kohler became Kaylor, Koehler and Kohler; Mueller became Miller; Schmidt became Smith. The Kaylor spelling is well established in Pennsylvania and the Midwest. Its use as a given name is recent and belongs to the general surname-name fashion, helped by the -or ending shared with Taylor and Connor.
Meaningscholars disagree
a charcoal burner
German Kohler is an occupational surname from Kohle, 'coal, charcoal', naming the man who burned wood into charcoal in the forest. That trade was essential to iron-making and glass-making and its practitioners lived apart, which is why the surname is common. Kaylor is a plausible American respelling of it. Alternatively the name may be a modern Kay- plus -lor construction, and no route can be shown for a given bearer.
How the name formed
- Kohle
- Kohler
- Kaylor
Related forms: Kohler · Kayler
Pronouncing Kaylor
KAY-ler
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ending reduced. The spelling is unambiguous and English readers produce it correctly on sight. German Kohler is said KUR-ler, with a front rounded vowel English does not have.
Nicknames for Kaylor
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
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 201526 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3597reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%14 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.
Kaylor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kohler in German — related form
- Kayler in English — spelling variant
Kaylors among us
people named Kaylor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Kaylor
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaylor
- #6143
- Kaylor on the 2025 chart
- #909
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaylor went to 14 boys in 2025, but Kailor is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 909th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,234 places above the chart.
- Kaylor14
- Kailor5
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Kaylor 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 Eyal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaylor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eyal climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eyal's path sketches the road Kaylor is walking now.
Kaylor 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
Kaylor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaylor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The pronunciation is obvious from the spelling with no competing reading.
- Kay is a complete name available as a short form.
- The German trade behind it is concrete and easy to explain.
- It is easily heard as Taylor, Kayler or Caleb.
- The descent from Kohler is likely but not documented.
- Its curve is around 2000, which places a bearer's generation.
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Kaylor
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaylors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Kaylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaylor?
- Kaylor is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 19 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kailor.
- How popular is the name Kaylor in 2025?
- Kaylor ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaylor?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Kaylor — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaylor with classmates?
- Kaylor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaylor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaylor? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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