Kaliya
A feminine name of Indian origin meaning "serpent" or "snake".
Name Census estimates that about 1,027 living Americans carry the first name Kaliya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kaliya today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaliya births was 2009 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaliya. 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 Kaliya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kaliya is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 333,743 Americans
Peak year
2009
57 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,131
Tracked since 1993
Census
Kaliya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 711 people with the first name Kaliya, which placed it at #16,004 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
#16,004
National first-name rank
People counted
711
711 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaliya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaliya is Black at 53.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (17.0%) and Hispanic (11.7%). 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 Kaliya 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 Kaliya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.9% · 383
- Two or more races17.0% · 121
- Hispanic or Latino11.7% · 83
- White11.4% · 81
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 13
Popularity
Kaliya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaliya 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 403 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Kaliya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaliya 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 Kaliya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaliyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Kaliya, while New York, Florida, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaliya
The name Kaliya has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that was the classical literary language of the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "kali," which means "black" or "dark," and is often associated with the Hindu goddess Kali, the fierce and powerful embodiment of divine feminine energy.
In Hindu mythology, Kaliya is the name of a powerful serpent or naga who resided in the Yamuna River near the city of Vrindavan. According to the Bhagavata Purana, one of the most important sacred texts of Hinduism, Lord Krishna subdued and defeated Kaliya after the serpent had poisoned the waters of the river, causing great distress to the inhabitants of Vrindavan.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Kaliya can be found in ancient Hindu scriptures and texts, such as the Puranas and the Mahabharata, which date back to the first millennium BCE. The name gained popularity in India and other parts of South Asia, particularly among Hindu communities.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Kaliya was Kaliya Malla, a 12th-century ruler of the Malla dynasty in Nepal. He is credited with building several temples and monuments in the Kathmandu Valley, including the famous Changu Narayan Temple.
Another notable figure was Kaliya Mardan, a renowned 16th-century Sufi saint and poet from the Indian subcontinent. He was known for his devotional poetry and his teachings on the path of spiritual enlightenment.
In more recent history, Kaliya Singh (1837-1887) was an influential Indian politician and social reformer from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He played a significant role in the Indian independence movement and advocated for the rights of peasants and the abolition of oppressive land revenue systems.
Kaliya Ranjan Qanungo (1888-1953) was a distinguished Indian historian and scholar who made significant contributions to the study of Indian history, particularly the medieval period. He served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta and was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honors.
Kaliya Kunju Rani (1905-1990) was a renowned Indian classical dancer and choreographer from Kerala. She was instrumental in reviving and promoting the traditional Mohiniyattam dance form and was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honors, for her contributions to the field of dance.
People
Kaliya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaliya 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
Kaliya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaliya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,027 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaliya 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 333,743 US residents.
Is Kaliya a common name?
We classify Kaliya as "Rare". It ranks above 90.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,039 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaliya most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaliya was 2009, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaliya is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaliya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 711 people with the name Kaliya, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,004 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 Kaliya 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 Kaliya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaliya appears almost entirely female. Of the 701 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Kaliya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaliya is Black at 53.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (17.0%) and Hispanic (11.7%). 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 Kaliya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kaliya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.9% (383 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 Kaliya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaliya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaliya 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 Kaliya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaliya 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 Kaliya 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 Kaliya?
See how many people share the name Kaliya on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.