Kaileah
A modern invented name possibly of English origin meaning "basket" or "keeper of the keys".
Name Census estimates that about 370 living Americans carry the first name Kaileah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kaileah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaileah births was 2015 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaileah. 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
370
~ 1 in 926,363 Americans
Peak year
2015
21 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,194
Tracked since 1999
Census
Kaileah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 229 people with the first name Kaileah, which placed it at #35,223 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
#35,223
National first-name rank
People counted
229
229 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
29.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaileah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaileah is White at 29.3%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Hispanic (17.5%). 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 Kaileah 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 Kaileah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White29.3% · 67
- Black or African American24.0% · 55
- Hispanic or Latino17.5% · 40
- Two or more races17.0% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.0% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 5
Popularity
Kaileah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaileah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 176 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kaileah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaileah 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 Kaileah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaileahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaileah
The name Kaileah is believed to have its origins in the Hawaiian language, and it is thought to be a variant spelling of the Hawaiian name Kaileia. This name is composed of two Hawaiian words: "kai" meaning "sea" or "ocean," and "leia" meaning "child" or "offspring." Therefore, the name Kaileah can be interpreted as "child of the sea" or "ocean child."
The earliest recorded use of the name Kaileah dates back to the late 20th century, particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. While the name has Hawaiian roots, it does not appear to have any significant historical references or mentions in ancient texts or religious scriptures from the Hawaiian culture.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Kaileah was Kaileah Elina Mendes, a Hawaiian-American actress born in 1988. She is known for her roles in television series such as "Hawaii Five-0" and "Magnum P.I."
Another notable figure with the name Kaileah was Kaileah Marla Toney, an American professional basketball player who played in the WNBA for the Seattle Storm and the Sacramento Monarchs during the early 2000s.
In the literary world, Kaileah Solamente is a fictional character from the novel "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult, published in 1998.
Kaileah Navarro was an American model and beauty pageant titleholder who competed in the Miss Universe 2005 pageant, representing the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Lastly, Kaileah Papalii is a contemporary Australian artist and painter known for her vibrant and expressive works exploring themes of cultural identity and environmental conservation.
It is worth noting that while the name Kaileah has gained popularity in recent decades, especially in Western countries, its use and historical references are relatively limited compared to more traditional Hawaiian names or those with deeper roots in other cultures.
People
Kaileah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaileah 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
Kaileah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaileah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 370 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaileah 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 926,363 US residents.
Is Kaileah a common name?
We classify Kaileah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 374 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaileah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaileah was 2015, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaileah is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaileah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 229 people with the name Kaileah, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,223 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 Kaileah 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 Kaileah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaileah appears almost entirely female. Of the 230 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Kaileah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaileah is White at 29.3%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Hispanic (17.5%). 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 Kaileah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kaileah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 29.3% (67 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 Kaileah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaileah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaileah 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 Kaileah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaileah 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 Kaileah 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 Kaileah?
See how many people have the name Kaileah on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.