Kahleb
A Hebrew masculine name meaning "whole" or "entire".
Name Census estimates that about 142 living Americans carry the first name Kahleb. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kahleb today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kahleb births was 2008 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kahleb. 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
142
~ 1 in 2,413,763 Americans
Peak year
2008
13 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,177
Tracked since 1996
Census
Kahleb in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 136 people with the first name Kahleb, which placed it at #47,733 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
#47,733
National first-name rank
People counted
136
136 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
38.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kahleb
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kahleb is White at 38.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.5%) and Hispanic (20.6%). 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 Kahleb 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 Kahleb at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White38.2% · 52
- Black or African American26.5% · 36
- Hispanic or Latino20.6% · 28
- Two or more races13.2% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 2
Popularity
Kahleb: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kahleb from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 74 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
Kahleb 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 Kahleb during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kahleb
The name Kahleb has its origins in the Arabic language, and is derived from the root word "khalib," which means "milk." This name likely emerged during the medieval period in the Middle East, particularly in regions where Arabic was the predominant language.
In Islamic tradition, the name Kahleb is believed to be associated with the Prophet Muhammad's companion, Khalid ibn al-Walid, who was known for his skills as a military leader and strategist. This connection may have contributed to the name's popularity among Arabic-speaking communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kahleb can be found in the writings of the 9th-century Arab scholar, Al-Jahiz, who mentioned a person by this name in his work, "Kitab al-Hayawan" (Book of Animals).
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kahleb. One such figure was Kahleb al-Basri (died 718 CE), a renowned Islamic scholar and mystic who lived in Basra, Iraq. Another was Kahleb al-Andalusi (1020-1090 CE), a famous mathematician and astronomer from Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain).
During the Ottoman Empire era, Kahleb Pasha (1497-1565) was a prominent military commander and statesman who served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1555. He played a crucial role in the expansion of the empire's territories in the Balkans and the Mediterranean region.
In more recent times, Kahleb Hosseini (born 1965) is an Afghan-American novelist and physician, best known for his acclaimed novels "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns," which have been translated into multiple languages and adapted into films.
Kahleb Ibn Sinan (1020-1086 CE), an Arab physician and philosopher from Basra, made significant contributions to the field of medicine and is credited with writing several influential works on medical ethics and practice.
People
Kahleb + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kahleb 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
Kahleb: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kahleb?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 142 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kahleb 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 2,413,763 US residents.
Is Kahleb a common name?
We classify Kahleb as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 144 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kahleb most popular?
The single biggest year for Kahleb was 2008, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kahleb is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kahleb in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 136 people with the name Kahleb, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #47,733 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 Kahleb 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 Kahleb?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kahleb appears almost entirely male. Of the 134 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Kahleb?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kahleb is White at 38.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.5%) and Hispanic (20.6%). 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 Kahleb most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kahleb in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.2% (52 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 Kahleb in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kahleb a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kahleb 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 Kahleb still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kahleb 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 Kahleb 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 Kahleb?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Kahleb at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.