Kaliah
A feminine name derived from the Arabic word "kali" meaning "speech".
Name Census estimates that about 2,524 living Americans carry the first name Kaliah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kaliah today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaliah births was 2021 (129 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaliah. 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 Kaliah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kaliah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.5K
~ 1 in 135,798 Americans
Peak year
2021
129 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,840
Tracked since 1978
Census
Kaliah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,587 people with the first name Kaliah, which placed it at #8,952 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
#8,952
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,587 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
61.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaliah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaliah is Black at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and White (11.0%). 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 Kaliah 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 Kaliah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American61.7% · 979
- Hispanic or Latino14.0% · 222
- White11.0% · 174
- Two or more races10.3% · 164
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 23
Popularity
Kaliah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaliah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,019 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kaliah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaliah 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 Kaliah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaliahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Kaliah, while Washington, Oregon, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 51 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaliah
The name Kaliah is of Arabic origin, derived from the word "Kali," which means "eternal" or "everlasting." The name has been in use since ancient times, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.
In the 7th century, the name Kaliah appeared in some early Islamic texts and historical records. It was a name given to both males and females during that era, although it was more commonly used for girls.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kaliah was in the 9th century, when a prominent Islamic scholar and philosopher, Kaliah ibn al-Rashid, lived in Baghdad. He was known for his contributions to the fields of mathematics and astronomy.
In the 12th century, Kaliah al-Hakim was a renowned poet and writer from the city of Damascus. Her works were widely celebrated and studied in the literary circles of the time.
During the 14th century, Kaliah al-Andalusi was a notable architect and engineer from the Iberian Peninsula. He was responsible for designing and overseeing the construction of several iconic buildings and structures in the region.
In the 16th century, Kaliah al-Maghribi was a famous explorer and traveler from Morocco. He documented his journeys across the Mediterranean and parts of Europe in a book that became a seminal work of travel literature.
Another notable figure with the name Kaliah was Kaliah al-Misri, a 17th-century physician and scholar from Egypt. He made significant contributions to the field of medicine and authored several treatises on various medical topics.
Over the centuries, the name Kaliah has been interpreted and adapted in different cultures and languages, with variations in spelling and pronunciation. However, its roots can be traced back to the ancient Arabic word "Kali," reflecting the name's timeless and enduring quality.
People
Kaliah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaliah 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
Kaliah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaliah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,524 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaliah 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 135,798 US residents.
Is Kaliah a common name?
We classify Kaliah as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,555 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaliah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaliah was 2021, when 129 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaliah is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaliah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,587 people with the name Kaliah, or 0.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,952 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 Kaliah 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 Kaliah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaliah leans strongly female. 1,568 people counted with this name were female (98.3%), compared with 27 male bearers (1.7%). 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 Kaliah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaliah is Black at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and White (11.0%). 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 Kaliah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kaliah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.7% (979 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 Kaliah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaliah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaliah 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 Kaliah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaliah 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 Kaliah 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 Kaliah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.