Kaaliyah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "victorious" or "survivor".
Name Census estimates that about 408 living Americans carry the first name Kaaliyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kaaliyah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaaliyah births was 2002 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaaliyah. 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 Kaaliyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
408
~ 1 in 840,084 Americans
Peak year
2002
27 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,743
Tracked since 1994
Census
Kaaliyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 268 people with the first name Kaaliyah, which placed it at #31,773 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
#31,773
National first-name rank
People counted
268
268 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
76.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaaliyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaaliyah is Black at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.8%) and Hispanic (7.8%). 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 Kaaliyah 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 Kaaliyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American76.5% · 205
- Two or more races13.8% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino7.8% · 21
- White1.1% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Popularity
Kaaliyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaaliyah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 188 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Kaaliyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaaliyah 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 Kaaliyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaaliyahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaaliyah
The name Kaaliyah is a variant spelling of the Arabic name Qaliyah, which is derived from the word "qali" meaning "to fry" or "to roast." It is believed to have originated in the Middle East region during the medieval period, around the 7th to 13th centuries.
The name Kaaliyah was likely influenced by Islamic culture and traditions. In Arabic, the name is often associated with the concept of purification or cleansing, as the process of frying or roasting was seen as a way to purify food.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kaaliyah can be found in the writings of the renowned Persian poet and philosopher, Rumi, who lived in the 13th century. He mentioned a woman named Qaliyah in one of his poems, praising her beauty and wisdom.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Kaaliyah or its variants. One such person was Qaliyah al-Nahrawani, a respected Islamic scholar and theologian who lived in the 9th century. She was known for her extensive knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence and her contributions to the field of Hadith studies.
Another prominent figure with this name was Qaliyah bint Ahmad al-Barmaki, a renowned poet and calligrapher who lived in the 9th century during the Abbasid Caliphate. Her works were widely celebrated for their artistic and literary merit.
In the 12th century, there was a Sufi mystic named Qaliyah al-Isfahani, who was revered for her spiritual teachings and her dedication to the path of Sufism.
A more recent example is Qaliyah al-Zahra, an Egyptian novelist and feminist activist who lived in the early 20th century. She was a pioneer in advocating for women's rights and education in the Arab world.
Despite its Arabic origins, the name Kaaliyah has gained popularity in various cultures and regions around the world, with individuals from diverse backgrounds embracing its unique sound and meaning.
People
Kaaliyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaaliyah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kaaliyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaaliyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 408 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaaliyah 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 840,084 US residents.
Is Kaaliyah a common name?
We classify Kaaliyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 413 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaaliyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaaliyah was 2002, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaaliyah 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 Kaaliyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 268 people with the name Kaaliyah, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,773 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 Kaaliyah 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 Kaaliyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaaliyah leans strongly female. 271 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 3 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Kaaliyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaaliyah is Black at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.8%) and Hispanic (7.8%). 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 Kaaliyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kaaliyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.5% (205 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 Kaaliyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaaliyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaaliyah 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 Kaaliyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaaliyah 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 Kaaliyah 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 people have the name Kaaliyah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.