Kayley
A feminine form of the Gaelic name Cailí meaning "slender".
Name Census estimates that about 8,369 living Americans carry the first name Kayley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kayley today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kayley births was 1999 (461 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kayley. 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
8.4K
~ 1 in 40,955 Americans
Peak year
1999
461 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,238
Tracked since 1977
Popularity
Kayley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kayley from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,679 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
Kayley 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 Kayley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kayleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Kayley, while New Mexico, New Hampshire, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 167 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kayley
The name Kayley is an English variant of the Scottish name Cailley, which is a feminine form of the Gaelic name Cailean. This name is thought to have derived from the Old Irish name Caillin, meaning "bright-headed" or "young beau." The name Caillin is believed to have originated from the Old Celtic word "cail," meaning "bright" or "fair."
The earliest recorded use of the name Kayley dates back to the late 19th century in England. It is believed that the spelling variation with a "y" emerged during this time as a way to distinguish the name from the more common spelling of "Kailey."
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Kayley was Kayley Cuoco, an American actress born in 1985. She is best known for her role as Penny on the popular sitcom "The Big Bang Theory."
In literature, the name Kayley appears in the 1998 animated film "Quest for Camelot." The character Kayley is a brave and adventurous young woman who sets out on a journey to save the kingdom of Camelot.
Another famous bearer of the name was Kayley Sheehan, an American figure skater who competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
In the world of politics, Kayley Frye was a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 2016 to 2019.
Kayley Woollacott is a British horse trainer and racehorse owner who has won numerous prestigious races, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2022.
While the name Kayley has roots in Scottish and Irish Gaelic cultures, it has gained popularity in various parts of the English-speaking world, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom.
People
Kayley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kayley 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
Kayley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kayley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,369 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kayley 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 40,955 US residents.
Is Kayley a common name?
We classify Kayley as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,541 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kayley most popular?
The single biggest year for Kayley was 1999, when 461 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kayley is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Kayley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kayley 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.
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.