Calais
A feminine name of French origin meaning "beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 258 living Americans carry the first name Calais. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 68.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Calais today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Calais births was 2024 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Calais. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Calais with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
258
~ 1 in 1,328,505 Americans
Peak year
2024
18 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,878
Tracked since 1984
Census
Calais in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 261 people with the first name Calais, which placed it at #32,310 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#32,310
National first-name rank
People counted
261
261 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Calais
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Calais is White at 52.5%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Two or More Races (13.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Calais described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Calais at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.5% · 137
- Black or African American20.3% · 53
- Two or more races13.0% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino8.8% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.7% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Calais
Calais is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 263 total registrations, 84 (31.9%) were male and 179 (68.1%) were female.
Calais as a male name
- Ranked #6,878 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (15 births)
Calais as a female name
- Ranked #13,744 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Calais on both sides of the split. Of the 270 people counted with this name, 64 were male (23.7%) and 206 were female (76.3%).
Popularity
Calais: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Calais from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 96 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Calais remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Calais by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Calais during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Calais
The name Calais is believed to have originated from the ancient Greek word "kallos," meaning "beauty" or "beautiful." It is thought to have been derived from the name of the French city of Calais, which was once known as "Calais the Beautiful" due to its picturesque location on the English Channel.
The earliest recorded use of the name Calais can be traced back to the 16th century, when it was used as a masculine name in various parts of Europe. In ancient Greek mythology, Calais was the name of one of the Boreades, the winged sons of Boreas, the god of the north wind.
One of the earliest notable individuals to bear the name Calais was Calais of Argos, a Greek sculptor who lived in the 5th century BC. He is known for his sculptural works that adorned the Acropolis of Athens.
In the 12th century, Calais was the name of a French troubadour and crusader who participated in the Third Crusade. He is mentioned in various historical accounts and chronicles of the era.
During the Renaissance period, Calais was the name of an Italian painter and architect who lived from 1510 to 1592. He was known for his frescoes and architectural designs in various churches and palaces in Italy.
In the 19th century, Calais was the name of a French explorer and naturalist who traveled extensively in Africa and South America. He was born in 1820 and is credited with discovering several new species of plants and animals.
Another notable bearer of the name Calais was an American poet and writer who lived from 1892 to 1986. He was known for his poetry collections and literary works that explored themes of nature, love, and the human condition.
People
Calais + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Calais as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Calais: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Calais?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 258 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Calais going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,328,505 US residents.
Is Calais a common name?
We classify Calais as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 263 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Calais most popular?
The single biggest year for Calais was 2024, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Calais is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Calais in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 261 people with the name Calais, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,310 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Calais in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Calais?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Calais on both sides of the split. Of the 270 people counted with this name, 64 were male (23.7%) and 206 were female (76.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Calais?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Calais is White at 52.5%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Two or More Races (13.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Calais most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Calais in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.5% (137 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Calais in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Calais a female name?
Yes, 68.1% of people registered as Calais in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Calais still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Calais in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Calais can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Calais?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Calais at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.