Kaeley
A feminine name of Irish origin meaning "beautiful," "slender," or "fair."
Name Census estimates that about 804 living Americans carry the first name Kaeley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kaeley today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaeley births was 1998 (47 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaeley. 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.
People living today
804
~ 1 in 426,311 Americans
Peak year
1998
47 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,244
Tracked since 1985
Census
Kaeley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 773 people with the first name Kaeley, which placed it at #15,009 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
#15,009
National first-name rank
People counted
773
773 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaeley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaeley is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.5%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Kaeley 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 Kaeley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.7% · 570
- Hispanic or Latino12.5% · 97
- Two or more races6.2% · 48
- Black or African American4.0% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 6
Popularity
Kaeley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaeley from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 342 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaeley 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 Kaeley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaeleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, Maryland recorded the most babies named Kaeley, while Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaeley
The name Kaeley is of English origin and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is believed to have derived from the Old English word "cæle," which means "cold" or "chilly." This suggests that the name may have been initially given to someone who was born during a particularly cold season or had a cool temperament.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Kaeley can be found in the Domesday Book, a historical record commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Cælede," referring to a landowner in the county of Lincolnshire.
During the 13th century, a variant spelling, "Kailey," emerged in medieval English records, indicating the name's continued use and evolution over time.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Kaeley de Montfort was a prominent courtier during the reign of Edward III. She served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Philippa of Hainault and is mentioned in several chronicles from that era.
In the 16th century, a Kaeley Woodhouse was recorded as one of the first English settlers in the Virginia Colony, arriving in Jamestown in 1607. Her name appears in the colonial records and passenger lists of the time.
Moving into the 17th century, Kaeley Greenaway was a renowned English poet and playwright born in 1620. Her works, such as "A Collection of Poems" and "The Merry Widow," gained her recognition among the literary circles of the time.
In the 19th century, Kaeley Ellison was a notable American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Born in 1825, she was a prominent figure in the anti-slavery movement and worked alongside renowned leaders like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.
Lastly, Kaeley Hutchinson was a British explorer and naturalist born in 1875. She gained fame for her expeditions to the Amazon rainforest, where she documented numerous new species of plants and animals, contributing significantly to the field of natural history.
While the name Kaeley has undergone various spellings and pronunciations over the centuries, it has maintained a consistent presence in English-speaking cultures, carrying with it a rich historical legacy and diverse associations.
People
Kaeley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaeley 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
Kaeley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaeley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 804 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaeley 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 426,311 US residents.
Is Kaeley a common name?
We classify Kaeley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 821 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaeley most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaeley was 1998, when 47 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaeley is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaeley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 773 people with the name Kaeley, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,009 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 Kaeley 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 Kaeley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaeley appears almost entirely female. Of the 778 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Kaeley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaeley is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.5%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Kaeley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kaeley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.7% (570 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 Kaeley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaeley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaeley 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 Kaeley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaeley 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 Kaeley 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 share the name Kaeley?
Find out how many people share the name Kaeley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.