Calie
A feminine diminutive variation of Calla, derived from the Greek word for beauty.
Name Census estimates that about 1,503 living Americans carry the first name Calie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Calie today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Calie births was 2008 (72 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Calie. 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 Calie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 228,047 Americans
Peak year
2008
72 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,657
Tracked since 1970
Census
Calie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,405 people with the first name Calie, which placed it at #9,758 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
#9,758
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,405 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Calie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Calie is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Calie 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 Calie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.2% · 1,085
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 132
- Black or African American6.4% · 90
- Two or more races4.4% · 62
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 27
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 9
Popularity
Calie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Calie 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 498 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
Calie 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 Calie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Calies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, Texas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Calie, while Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Calie
The name Calie is believed to have its origins in the Greek language. It is thought to be a feminine variation of the masculine name Caleb, which means "faithful" or "whole-hearted" in Hebrew. The earliest known use of the name Calie dates back to the late 19th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Calie is in the 1881 novel "The Story of an African Farm" by Olive Schreiner, where it is used as a character's name. However, the name did not gain widespread popularity until the early 20th century.
In the early 1900s, a notable figure named Calie was Calie Wilkins (1890-1965), an American suffragist and social activist who campaigned for women's rights and racial equality. She was a prominent figure in the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Another historical figure with the name Calie was Calie Eisenhauer (1915-1997), an American painter and sculptor known for her abstract expressionist works. Her art was widely exhibited in galleries across the United States, and she received numerous awards and accolades during her lifetime.
In the world of literature, Calie Marquez (1920-2005) was a Mexican writer and poet who published several collections of poems and short stories. Her work often explored themes of identity, feminism, and social issues, and she was considered a prominent voice in the Mexican literary scene of the 20th century.
Moving to the field of music, Calie Jones (1928-2018) was an American blues singer and guitarist who was active in the Chicago blues scene during the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with notable musicians such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and is remembered for her powerful vocals and guitar skills.
Finally, Calie Sinclair (1935-2011) was a British actress and television personality who appeared in numerous stage productions, films, and TV shows throughout her career. She gained recognition for her roles in popular TV series such as "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "The Forsyte Saga," and was known for her versatility as an actress.
While the name Calie has not been as widely used as some other names, it has a rich history and has been borne by several notable individuals across various fields throughout the 20th century.
People
Calie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Calie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Calie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Calie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,503 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Calie 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 228,047 US residents.
Is Calie a common name?
We classify Calie as "Rare". It ranks above 92.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,537 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Calie most popular?
The single biggest year for Calie was 2008, when 72 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Calie is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Calie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,405 people with the name Calie, or 0.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,758 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 Calie 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 Calie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Calie leans strongly female. 1,378 people counted with this name were female (98.4%), compared with 22 male bearers (1.6%). 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 Calie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Calie is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Calie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Calie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.2% (1,085 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 Calie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Calie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Calie 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 Calie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Calie 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 Calie 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 Calie as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.