Khaleesi
Feminine · “queen”
Khaleesi began life inside a book: it is the Dothraki word for a khal's wife — a queen — in George R.R. Martin's novels, the first of which appeared in the mid-1990s. Once the television adaptation reached a wide audience, parents started borrowing the word outright, and it has held its place on the charts ever since. In the mouth it is three easy syllables with the stress in the middle, and it rhymes with nothing else in the class register.
How old is the name Khaleesi?
Khaleesi first appears in US birth records in 2011 — 14 years ago. The typical Khaleesi is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,500 people named Khaleesi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Khaleesi most popular?
Khaleesi peaked in 2018, reaching #547 nationally. Today it ranks #689, 142 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Khaleesi appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From khal (Dothraki title for a leader) to Khaleesi
The story of Khaleesi
The word was coined for fiction, not inherited from any spoken language: in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, a khal leads a Dothraki horde and his wife is his khaleesi. The novels gave the word its meaning; the HBO adaptation gave it a pronunciation heard by millions, and that is the moment it crossed from vocabulary into a name given to real children. Because it arrived through one text and one broadcast, it looks and sounds the same wherever it is used — there is no older layer of spellings underneath it. In the US it has been recorded only for girls, which follows the source, where the title belongs to a queen.
Meaning
queen — the wife of a khal, in the invented Dothraki language
In the source it is a title rather than a personal name. The word appears in Martin's novels, and the Dothraki language around it was expanded for television by the linguist David J. Peterson. Its shape echoes the real steppe title khan, though no line of descent from it is documented.
How the name formed
- khalDothraki title for a leader
- khaleesihis wife
- Khaleesigiven name
Pronouncing Khaleesi
kuh-LEE-see
The television series established this pronunciation, and it is the one most Americans will reach for. A first-syllable stress, KHA-lee-see, is also heard. The kh is pronounced as a plain k in English.
Nicknames for Khaleesi
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 2011 — Game of Thrones premieres
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 2011
- Most girls named
- 2018565 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #547reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −5.5%410 in 2025, from 434
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.
Khaleesi in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Khaleesis among us
people named Khaleesi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,920 born in 2025 was named Khaleesi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Khaleesi
- #689
- Khaleesi on the 2025 chart
- #536
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Khaleesi went to 410 girls in 2025, but Kaleesi, Caleesi and Khaleesy and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 472, which makes it the 536th most-given girls’ name of the year — 153 places above the chart.
- Khaleesi410
- Kaleesi27
- Caleesi17
- Khaleesy7
- Khalesi6
- Kalesi5
About 1 girl in 3,405 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 3,920 for Khaleesi 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 Deidra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Khaleesi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Deidra climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Deidra's path sketches the road Khaleesi is walking now.
Khaleesi 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
Where Khaleesi is headed
Khaleesi should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Khaleesi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Khaleesi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Its spelling and pronunciation are already known to anyone familiar with the books or the series, so most people get it right on the first hearing.
- A child with this name will almost certainly be the only one wherever she goes, without the name being unpronounceable.
- Three syllables with a clear middle stress give it several natural short forms: Leesi, Khali, Lee.
- It comes from a single written source, so it carries the same form and sense in every country the story reached.
- The name arrives with the whole story attached, including everything that happens to the character it belongs to. Some people will bring that up; a child will hear the reference explained to her many times.
- In the books it is a title, not a name — closer to "queen" than to "Daenerys". Readers who know the source sometimes make a point of this.
- Expect to spell it. Khaleesi, Kaleesi and Khalessi all circulate, and the silent-h opening is easy to mishear.
- Because the name's whole history is recent, it quietly dates a birth to a particular stretch of years — the same is true of most names that arrive with a hit story.
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Khaleesi
Feminine · #689 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Khaleesis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,500 people named Khaleesi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Khaleesi?
- Khaleesi is the most-used spelling in US records — 410 of the 472 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kaleesi, Caleesi, Khaleesy, Khalesi and Kalesi.
- How popular is the name Khaleesi in 2025?
- Khaleesi ranks #689 among US girl names in 2025, with 410 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Khaleesi?
- About 1 in every 3,920 US girls born in 2025 was named Khaleesi — 410 in all.
- Will my child share the name Khaleesi with classmates?
- Khaleesi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Khaleesi's chart?
- Khaleesi climbed after 2011 — Game of Thrones premieres.
Ranked beside Khaleesi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Georgina#689 · Emberly#688 · Lara#691 · Billie#691 · Kinley#691 · Dallas#686 · Chana#686 · Rowyn#694
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Khaleesi? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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