Kalijah
A unique feminine name derived from the Arabic name Khalila meaning "beloved friend".
Name Census estimates that about 341 living Americans carry the first name Kalijah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Kalijah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kalijah births was 2001 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kalijah. 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
341
~ 1 in 1,005,145 Americans
Peak year
2001
29 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,137
Tracked since 1995
Census
Kalijah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 232 people with the first name Kalijah, which placed it at #34,960 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
#34,960
National first-name rank
People counted
232
232 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
48.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kalijah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kalijah is Black at 48.7%. The next largest groups are White (22.4%) and Two or More Races (12.1%). 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 Kalijah 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 Kalijah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American48.7% · 113
- White22.4% · 52
- Two or more races12.1% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino9.9% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native5.6% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Kalijah
Kalijah leans heavily male at 80.6% of total registrations, but 67 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kalijah as a male name
- Ranked #5,137 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (20 births)
Kalijah as a female name
- Ranked #13,168 in 2008
- 8 female births in 2008
- Peak: 1999 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kalijah on both sides of the split. Of the 229 people counted with this name, 147 were male (64.2%) and 82 were female (35.8%).
Popularity
Kalijah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kalijah 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 148 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Kalijah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kalijah 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 Kalijah 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 Kalijah
The given name Kalijah has its origins in the Arabic language, with roots dating back to the 7th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic word "Kalila," which means "wise" or "intelligent." The name gained popularity in the Middle East and North Africa during the Islamic Golden Age, a period of significant cultural, economic, and scientific advancement.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Kalijah can be found in historical texts from the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled over a vast territory spanning from modern-day Iran to Morocco between the 8th and 13th centuries. During this time, the name was often associated with scholars, philosophers, and intellectuals who made significant contributions to various fields of knowledge.
In the 11th century, a renowned philosopher and mathematician named Kalijah ibn al-Haytham, also known as Alhazen, lived in present-day Iraq. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest physicists of the Middle Ages and is credited with making significant contributions to the field of optics, including the development of the scientific method.
Another notable figure who bore the name Kalijah was Kalijah al-Qahiri, a 13th-century Egyptian scholar and poet. He was renowned for his mastery of the Arabic language and his works, which celebrated the beauty and richness of Arabic literature.
In the 14th century, Kalijah al-Maghribi, a Moroccan explorer and traveler, embarked on a remarkable journey across North Africa and the Middle East. His detailed accounts of his travels provided valuable insights into the cultures, customs, and landscapes he encountered, and his writings are still studied by historians and scholars today.
During the 15th century, Kalijah al-Andalusi, a renowned philosopher and theologian from Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain), made significant contributions to the field of Islamic jurisprudence. His works influenced legal and religious thought in the region and beyond.
While the name Kalijah has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has also been adopted and adapted by various other cultures and communities around the world, each adding their own unique interpretations and meanings to the name.
People
Kalijah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kalijah 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
Kalijah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kalijah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 341 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kalijah 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 1,005,145 US residents.
Is Kalijah a common name?
We classify Kalijah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 345 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kalijah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kalijah was 2001, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kalijah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kalijah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 232 people with the name Kalijah, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,960 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 Kalijah 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 Kalijah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kalijah on both sides of the split. Of the 229 people counted with this name, 147 were male (64.2%) and 82 were female (35.8%). 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 Kalijah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kalijah is Black at 48.7%. The next largest groups are White (22.4%) and Two or More Races (12.1%). 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 Kalijah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kalijah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.7% (113 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 Kalijah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kalijah a male name?
Yes, 80.6% of people registered as Kalijah 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 Kalijah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kalijah 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 Kalijah 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 common is the name Kalijah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.