Khali
Masculine
Khali is given to both — 700 boys and 1,387 girls since 1880. See Khali as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Khali sits between several real names without being clearly any of them. Khalil is Arabic for a close friend; Khalid means eternal; Kali is a Hindu goddess and also a Yoruba and Swahili word. The kh spelling points towards Arabic, and the American record — peaking in 2017 — puts the name among a generation of short, open boys' names.
How old is the name Khali?
Khali first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Khali alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 700 people named Khali are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Khali most popular?
Khali peaked in 2017, reaching #3123 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 2,738 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Khalil to Khali
Our story of Khali
The digraph kh is doing a specific job here. In transliteration from Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Hebrew it stands for a real consonant that English does not have — a sound made at the back of the throat, the one in loch. English speakers cannot easily produce it and generally say a plain k instead, which means the h is silent in practice everywhere in America. But it is not idle. It signals origin: a name spelled with kh reads as belonging to a tradition, whether or not the particular name does. That is why the digraph spread beyond the names that earned it, into Khloe, Khylie and Khali. In this case the signal is at least pointing in a plausible direction, since Khalil and Khalid are both genuine and both common. Whether this name descends from either or simply borrows their letter is not something the record can settle.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Several candidate sources and no clear descent. Arabic khalil, from a root meaning intimate friendship, is the title given to Abraham as Khalil Allah, the friend of God; Khalid, from a root meaning permanence, is a separate Arabic name. Khali on its own is not a standard Arabic name, though khali does exist as a word meaning empty or vacant, which is unlikely to be the intended sense. It may equally be a clipping of Khalil or a respelling of Kali. The honest position is that the spelling is modern and the source is not established.
How the name formed
- Khalil
- Khali
Related forms: Khalil · Khalid · Khalid
Pronouncing Khali
KAH-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the h silent in English. A second saying, kuh-LEE with the stress at the end, is also heard and moves the name closer to Khalil. Both circulate in American use.
Nicknames for Khali
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
- 1978
- Most boys named
- 201737 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3123reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- +50.0%15 in 2025, from 10
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.
Khali in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Khalil in Arabic — related form
- Khalid in Arabic — related form
- Khalid in Swahili — related form
Khalis among us
people named Khali are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Khali
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Khali
- #5861
- Khali on the 2025 chart
- #874
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Khali went to 15 boys in 2025, but Kali and Cali are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 54, which makes it the 874th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,987 places above the chart.
- Kali24
- Cali15
- Khali15
About 1 boy in 31,631 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 113,872 for Khali 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 Kynan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Khali's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kynan climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kynan's path sketches the road Khali is walking now.
Khali 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
Khali beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Khali in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, soft and easy for anyone to say.
- Ali is available inside it as a complete and widely known name.
- The spelling is distinctive while the sound is entirely familiar.
- Two stress patterns circulate and the spelling does not settle which.
- The kh is silent in English, so the h is dropped by most people writing it down.
- The source is not established, so the meaning question needs a qualifier.
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What they receive
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Khali
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Khalis 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 Khali are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Khali?
- Khali is one of 3 recorded spellings. Kali is the more common one — 24 births in 2025 against 15 for Khali.
- How popular is the name Khali in 2025?
- Khali ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Khali?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Khali — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Khali with classmates?
- Khali will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Khali
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Khali? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Khali and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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