Khalilah
Feminine · “close friend”
Khalilah is a close friend, in a sense Arabic makes precise: not an acquaintance but the friend a person is bound to. Abraham is called Khalil Allah, the friend of God, in Islamic tradition, and that phrase is why the root carries the weight it does.
How old is the name Khalilah?
Khalilah first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Khalilah alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 1,700 people named Khalilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Khalilah most popular?
Khalilah peaked in 1976, reaching #714 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 4,273 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Khalilah
The word has been a name across the Arabic-speaking world since early Islamic times, for men as Khalil and for women as Khalila. The city of Hebron is called al-Khalil in Arabic, after Abraham, who is buried there in the tradition, which keeps the word in daily view. The name entered Black American naming in the nineteen-sixties and seventies, when Arabic names were being taken up in numbers, and Khalilah with an h at the end belongs to that period of American transliteration.
Meaning
close friend; beloved companion
Arabic khalila, the feminine of khalil, an intimate friend, from a root about penetrating or interpenetrating, so a friendship that has got inside a person. Abraham's title Khalil Allah, friend of God, is the most famous use of the word.
Pronouncing Khalilah
kah-LEE-lah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Arabic begins with a kh made at the back of the throat, which English speakers approximate as a plain k without anyone minding.
Nicknames for Khalilah
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 1976205 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #714reached in 1976
- Change vs 2024
- +4.0%26 in 2025, from 25
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.
Khalilah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- خليلة in Arabic — transliteration
- Halile in Turkish — same name
- Khalila in Urdu — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Khalilahs among us
people named Khalilah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Khalilah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Khalilah
- #4987
- Khalilah on the 2025 chart
- #702
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Khalilah went to 26 girls in 2025, but Kalilah, Kalila and Khalyla and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 263, which makes it the 702nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,285 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 6,111 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Khalilah 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 Ines test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Khalilah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ines climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ines's path sketches the road Khalilah is walking now.
Khalilah 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 Khalilah is headed
Khalilah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 15% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Khalilah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Khalilah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is warm, precise and easy to state in three words.
- Lila works as a short form and is a complete name on its own.
- It is recognized across the Arab world and in Black American communities alike.
- Khalilah, Khalila and Kalila are all in use, so the spelling will be asked for.
- The kh is a single Arabic sound that English cannot make, so the opening is always approximated.
- It is long for American forms and gets clipped without anyone asking.
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Khalilah
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Khalilahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Khalilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Khalilah?
- Khalilah is one of 8 recorded spellings. Kalilah is the more common one — 123 births in 2025 against 26 for Khalilah.
- How popular is the name Khalilah in 2025?
- Khalilah ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Khalilah?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Khalilah — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Khalilah with classmates?
- Khalilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Khalilah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Khalilah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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