Kale
A baby boy's name derived from the Greek word meaning "cabbage".
Name Census estimates that about 7,408 living Americans carry the first name Kale. It is a predominantly male name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Kale today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kale births was 2008 (567 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kale. 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 Kale with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Kale is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 226 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
7.4K
~ 1 in 46,268 Americans
Peak year
2008
567 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,317
Tracked since 1917
Census
Kale in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,386 people with the first name Kale, which placed it at #3,023 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
#3,023
National first-name rank
People counted
7.4K
7,386 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kale
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kale is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.3%) and Hispanic (5.8%). 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 Kale 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 Kale at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.1% · 5,915
- Two or more races6.3% · 465
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 431
- Black or African American3.7% · 272
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 159
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 144
Gender
Gender distribution for Kale
Kale leans heavily male at 97.0% of total registrations, but 226 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kale as a male name
- Ranked #5,317 in 2024
- 18 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (544 births)
Kale as a female name
- Ranked #17,885 in 2013
- 5 female births in 2013
- Peak: 2006 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kale leans strongly male. 6,969 people counted with this name were male (94.4%), compared with 410 female bearers (5.6%).
Popularity
Kale: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kale from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,985 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
Kale 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 Kale during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kales live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. Texas, California, Missouri recorded the most babies named Kale, while New Mexico, Maine, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 119 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kale
The name Kale has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which was widely used in ancient India. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "kalya," which means "auspicious" or "fortunate." The name gained popularity in various regions of the Indian subcontinent, particularly among Hindu communities.
Kale is also found in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, where it is mentioned as the name of a warrior in the Kaurava army. This ancient text, which dates back to around the 4th century BCE, provides one of the earliest recorded instances of the name's usage.
In the 8th century CE, a renowned Indian mathematician and astronomer named Kale Krisnamba made significant contributions to the field of mathematics. He is credited with developing a method for solving indeterminate equations, known as the "Kale Krisnamba Method."
Another notable figure with the name Kale was Kale Khan, a military commander who served under the Mughal Empire in the 16th century. He played a crucial role in the conquest of the Bengal region and was eventually appointed as the governor of the region.
In the realm of Indian classical music, Kale Krishnabuwa Kalye, born in 1888, was a prominent Hindustani classical vocalist and composer. He was renowned for his expertise in the Khayal and Thumri styles of music and made significant contributions to the preservation and promotion of Indian classical music.
Kale Gorakshkar, born in 1905, was a revered Indian freedom fighter and social reformer. He dedicated his life to the struggle for India's independence from British colonial rule and worked tirelessly to uplift marginalized communities.
While the name Kale has its roots in ancient Sanskrit, it has been adopted by various cultures and communities across the Indian subcontinent, each adding their own unique linguistic and cultural influences to its meaning and significance.
People
Kale + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kale 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
Kale: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kale?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,408 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kale 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 46,268 US residents.
Is Kale a common name?
We classify Kale as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,594 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kale most popular?
The single biggest year for Kale was 2008, when 567 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kale 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 Kale in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,386 people with the name Kale, or 2.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,023 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 Kale 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 Kale?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kale leans strongly male. 6,969 people counted with this name were male (94.4%), compared with 410 female bearers (5.6%). 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 Kale?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kale is White at 80.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.3%) and Hispanic (5.8%). 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 Kale most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kale in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.1% (5,915 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 Kale in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kale a male name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Kale in the SSA data are male. 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 Kale still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kale 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 Kale 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 Kale?
Want to know how many people have the name Kale? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.