Kelaiah
Feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "one who rises to God".
Name Census estimates that about 265 living Americans carry the first name Kelaiah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kelaiah today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kelaiah births was 2015 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kelaiah. 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
265
~ 1 in 1,293,413 Americans
Peak year
2015
16 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,605
Tracked since 1991
Census
Kelaiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 205 people with the first name Kelaiah, which placed it at #37,817 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
#37,817
National first-name rank
People counted
205
205 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
57.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kelaiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelaiah is Black at 57.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.6%) and White (15.1%). 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 Kelaiah 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 Kelaiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American57.6% · 118
- Hispanic or Latino15.6% · 32
- White15.1% · 31
- Two or more races6.8% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 3
Popularity
Kelaiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kelaiah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 97 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kelaiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kelaiah 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 Kelaiah 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 Kelaiah
The given name Kelaiah is believed to have originated from the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is a variant spelling of the name Kelayah, which is derived from the Hebrew word "kalah," meaning "to complete" or "to finish." The name is associated with the concept of fulfillment or reaching a goal.
In biblical times, the name Kelaiah is mentioned in the Book of Ezra, one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Ezra 10:23 lists Kelaiah as one of the Levites who had married foreign women during the time of the Babylonian exile. This reference indicates that the name was in use among the Israelites during the 5th century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kelaiah can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Jewish texts discovered in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea. A scroll fragment from around the 1st century BCE contains the name Kelaiah, suggesting its usage among the Essene community at that time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kelaiah. One of the earliest was Kelaiah ben Shafan (c. 600 BCE), a scribe mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible. Another historical figure was Kelaiah the Levite (c. 445 BCE), who is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah as one of those who assisted in the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.
In more recent times, Kelaiah Duffie (1926-2012) was an American blues musician from Mississippi, known for his guitar playing and singing. He recorded several albums and performed extensively in the latter half of the 20th century.
Another notable bearer of the name was Kelaiah P. Nuttall (1834-1890), a Mormon pioneer and leader who served as the first bishop of the Kanab Ward in Utah. He played a significant role in the settlement and development of the area.
Finally, Kelaiah Dumas (1942-2021) was a prominent Trinidadian calypsonian and soca musician, known for his innovative blending of traditional calypso with modern soca rhythms. He was a highly respected figure in the Caribbean music scene and performed for over five decades.
People
Kelaiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kelaiah 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
Kelaiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kelaiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 265 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kelaiah 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 1,293,413 US residents.
Is Kelaiah a common name?
We classify Kelaiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 268 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kelaiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kelaiah was 2015, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kelaiah 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 Kelaiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 205 people with the name Kelaiah, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,817 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 Kelaiah 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 Kelaiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kelaiah leans strongly female. 193 people counted with this name were female (94.6%), compared with 11 male bearers (5.4%). 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 Kelaiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kelaiah is Black at 57.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.6%) and White (15.1%). 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 Kelaiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kelaiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.6% (118 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 Kelaiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kelaiah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kelaiah 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 Kelaiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kelaiah 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 Kelaiah 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 many people share the name Kelaiah?
You can see how many people have the name Kelaiah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.