Caylie
Feminine name of Old English origin meaning "small and petite".
Name Census estimates that about 1,604 living Americans carry the first name Caylie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Caylie today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Caylie births was 2009 (106 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Caylie. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 213,687 Americans
Peak year
2009
106 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,526
Tracked since 1984
Popularity
Caylie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Caylie 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 692 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
Caylie 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 Caylie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Caylies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Caylie, while Indiana, Missouri, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Caylie
The name Caylie is a relatively modern adaptation of the traditional English name Cayley or Caley, which itself derives from the Old English word "calewe," meaning "cabbage" or "vegetable garden." This etymology suggests that the name may have originated as a surname for someone who lived near or worked in a vegetable garden or farmland.
In its earliest recorded use, the name Cayley appeared in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This document mentions a place called "Caillia" in Yorkshire, which likely gave rise to the surname Cayley for those associated with that locality.
While the name Cayley has a long history as a surname, its use as a given name is relatively recent. One of the earliest documented instances of Cayley as a first name was Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), an English engineer and inventor known as the "father of aerial navigation" for his pioneering work on aerodynamics and the design of early gliders.
Another notable bearer of the name was Arthur Cayley (1821-1895), a British mathematician who made significant contributions to the fields of algebra, geometry, and mathematical physics. He is considered one of the founders of modern algebraic geometry and is credited with introducing the concept of a matrix in mathematics.
In the realm of literature, Cayley Caulfield-Browne (1907-1973) was a British novelist and short story writer who published under the pen name Jean Plaidy. She wrote numerous historical novels, including several series focused on the lives of British and French royalty.
More recently, Caylie Runciman (born 1999) is a Canadian actress and singer known for her roles in television series such as "The Stanley Dynamic" and "Heartland."
While not as common as some other names, Caylie has gained popularity in recent decades, particularly in English-speaking countries. Its unique blend of traditional roots and modern flair has likely contributed to its appeal as a given name.
People
Caylie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Caylie 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
Caylie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Caylie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,604 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Caylie 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 213,687 US residents.
Is Caylie a common name?
We classify Caylie as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,633 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Caylie most popular?
The single biggest year for Caylie was 2009, when 106 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Caylie is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Caylie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Caylie 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.
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.