Kalika
A Hindu name meaning the fierce manifestation of Goddess Kali.
Name Census estimates that about 252 living Americans carry the first name Kalika. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kalika today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kalika births was 1996 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kalika. 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
252
~ 1 in 1,360,136 Americans
Peak year
1996
20 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2020 SSA rank
#16,256
Tracked since 1980
Census
Kalika in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 346 people with the first name Kalika, which placed it at #26,749 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
#26,749
National first-name rank
People counted
346
346 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kalika
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kalika is White at 35.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (25.1%) and Black (18.5%). 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 Kalika 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 Kalika at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.8% · 124
- Asian and Pacific Islander25.1% · 87
- Black or African American18.5% · 64
- Two or more races12.7% · 44
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 6
Popularity
Kalika: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kalika from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 99 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kalika 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 Kalika 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 Kalika
The name Kalika finds its origins in the Sanskrit language and is derived from the word "Kali," which means "the black one" or "the force of time." This name has deep roots in Hinduism and is associated with the powerful goddess Kali, who represents the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
Kalika is considered a manifestation or an aspect of the goddess Kali, and she is often depicted as a fierce and formidable figure, wielding weapons and adorned with skulls and snakes. In Hindu mythology, Kalika is revered as the destroyer of evil forces and the embodiment of divine wrath.
The earliest mentions of the name Kalika can be found in ancient Hindu scriptures, such as the Puranas and the Tantras. These texts describe her as a fearsome deity who protects her devotees from harm and vanquishes their enemies. The Kalika Purana, a sacred text dedicated to the worship of the goddess, is believed to have been composed around the 10th or 11th century CE.
One of the earliest recorded individuals bearing the name Kalika was a 7th-century Hindu philosopher and religious leader from the Malabar region of South India. Known as Kalika Bhatta, he was a renowned scholar and contributed significantly to the development of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.
In the 13th century, a powerful Hindu queen named Kalika Devi ruled over the Chaulukya dynasty in present-day Gujarat, India. She was a formidable ruler and is remembered for her military campaigns against neighboring kingdoms and her patronage of art and architecture.
Another notable figure was Kalika Prasad Mukhopadhyay, a 19th-century Bengali writer and social reformer who advocated for women's education and worked towards the abolition of the practice of Sati (widow burning) in India.
In the realm of literature, Kalika Ranjan Qanungo was a prominent Bengali novelist and short story writer from the early 20th century. His works explored themes of social injustice, and he is considered one of the pioneers of the modern Bengali literary movement.
Lastly, Kalika Balu was a renowned Indian classical dancer and choreographer who lived in the 20th century. She was instrumental in reviving and popularizing the Bharatanatyam dance form, and her performances were celebrated across India and abroad.
People
Kalika + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kalika 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
Kalika: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kalika?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 252 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kalika 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 1,360,136 US residents.
Is Kalika a common name?
We classify Kalika as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 261 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kalika most popular?
The single biggest year for Kalika was 1996, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kalika is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kalika in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 346 people with the name Kalika, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,749 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 Kalika 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 Kalika?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kalika leans strongly female. 319 people counted with this name were female (91.9%), compared with 28 male bearers (8.1%). 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 Kalika?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kalika is White at 35.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (25.1%) and Black (18.5%). 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 Kalika most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kalika in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.8% (124 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 Kalika in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kalika a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kalika 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 Kalika still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kalika 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 Kalika 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 Kalika?
See how many people share the name Kalika on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.