Keliyah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "crown" or "wreath".
Name Census estimates that about 259 living Americans carry the first name Keliyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keliyah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keliyah births was 2011 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keliyah. 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 Keliyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
259
~ 1 in 1,323,376 Americans
Peak year
2011
17 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,609
Tracked since 2001
Popularity
Keliyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keliyah from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 122 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Keliyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keliyah 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 Keliyah 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 Keliyah
The name Keliyah is of Hebrew origin, derived from the Hebrew word "kelayah," which means "vessel" or "container." It is believed to have emerged as a given name during the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century CE, in Jewish communities across Europe and the Middle East.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Keliyah can be found in a medieval Hebrew manuscript from the 13th century, where it is mentioned as the name of a young woman from a prominent Jewish family in Spain. This suggests that the name was in use among Sephardic Jews during that time period.
In the 16th century, there is a record of a Keliyah ben Avraham, a Jewish scholar and philosopher from Safed, a city in modern-day Israel, who wrote extensively on Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. His works were widely circulated and had a significant influence on Jewish thought during the Renaissance.
During the 17th century, a Keliyah Luria was a prominent rabbi and Kabbalist in Poland. He was known for his teachings on the mystical aspects of Judaism and his contributions to the development of the Lurianic Kabbalah, a influential school of Jewish mysticism.
In the 19th century, Keliyah Cohen was a notable Jewish educator and author from Morocco. She wrote several books on Jewish customs and traditions, and her works were widely read and influential in the Moroccan Jewish community.
Another notable figure with the name Keliyah is Keliyah Davidovich, a Russian-born Israeli poet and playwright who lived from 1904 to 1977. She was known for her lyrical and introspective works that explored themes of identity, displacement, and the human experience.
While the name Keliyah has its roots in Hebrew and Jewish culture, it has also been adopted by other communities and cultures over time, although its usage remains relatively uncommon compared to other names of Hebrew origin.
People
Keliyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keliyah 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
Keliyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keliyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 259 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keliyah 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 1,323,376 US residents.
Is Keliyah a common name?
We classify Keliyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.5% 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 Keliyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Keliyah was 2011, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keliyah is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Keliyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keliyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keliyah 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 Keliyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keliyah 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 Keliyah 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people share the name Keliyah?
You can see how many people have the name Keliyah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.