Kayli
An American feminine name meaning "form of Kaylie," itself a variant of Kelly.
Name Census estimates that about 6,939 living Americans carry the first name Kayli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kayli today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kayli births was 2003 (333 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kayli. 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 Kayli with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.9K
~ 1 in 49,395 Americans
Peak year
2003
333 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,530
Tracked since 1978
Census
Kayli in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,292 people with the first name Kayli, which placed it at #3,369 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
#3,369
National first-name rank
People counted
6.3K
6,292 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kayli
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayli is White at 66.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.6%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Kayli 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 Kayli at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.6% · 4,188
- Hispanic or Latino14.6% · 917
- Two or more races7.4% · 463
- Black or African American5.9% · 371
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 286
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 67
Popularity
Kayli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kayli from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,882 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
Kayli 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 Kayli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaylis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Kayli, while Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kayli
The name Kayli is believed to have originated from the Old English language, where it was derived from the Germanic word "kal," meaning "bald" or "bold." This name likely emerged in the early medieval period, around the 5th to 8th centuries, when Anglo-Saxon culture flourished in parts of what is now England and northern Germany.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kayli can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings and population in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. In this document, there is a record of a landowner named Kayli, who held estates in the county of Gloucestershire.
During the Middle Ages, the name Kayli appeared occasionally in various chronicles and records, although it was not as common as some other names of the time. One notable bearer of the name was Kayli de Montfort, a 13th-century English noblewoman who was a member of the prominent Montfort family and played a role in the Barons' War against King Henry III.
In the 16th century, a Kayli Cromwell was recorded as a member of the household of Thomas Cromwell, the influential adviser to King Henry VIII. This Kayli Cromwell may have been a distant relative of the famous Oliver Cromwell, who later became Lord Protector of England in the 17th century.
Another historical figure who bore the name Kayli was Kayli Raleigh, a 17th-century English explorer and colonist who accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on expeditions to the Americas. Kayli Raleigh is credited with helping to establish the first English settlement on the island of Roanoke, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.
Moving into the 18th century, a Kayli Austen was recorded as a distant cousin of the renowned novelist Jane Austen. While little is known about Kayli Austen's life, her existence suggests that the name Kayli continued to be used, albeit in a limited capacity, among certain English families during this period.
People
Kayli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kayli 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
Kayli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kayli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,939 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kayli 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 49,395 US residents.
Is Kayli a common name?
We classify Kayli as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,090 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kayli most popular?
The single biggest year for Kayli was 2003, when 333 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kayli 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 Kayli in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,292 people with the name Kayli, or 2.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,369 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 Kayli 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 Kayli?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kayli appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,292 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kayli?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayli is White at 66.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.6%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Kayli most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kayli in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.6% (4,188 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 Kayli in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kayli a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kayli 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 Kayli still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kayli 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 Kayli 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 are named Kayli?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.