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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kayley with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Kayley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,698 people with the first name Kayley, which placed it at #2,938 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
#2,938
National first-name rank
People counted
7.7K
7,698 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kayley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayley is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.7%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Kayley 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 Kayley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.7% · 5,677
- Hispanic or Latino12.7% · 976
- Two or more races5.2% · 400
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 309
- Black or African American3.5% · 270
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 66
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.
How common was Kayley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,698 people with the name Kayley, or 2.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,938 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 Kayley 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 Kayley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kayley appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,696 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kayley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayley is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.7%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Kayley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kayley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.7% (5,677 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 Kayley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Kayley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kayley 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 Kayley 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 Kayley?
See how many people share the name Kayley on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.