Khaleel
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "friend" or "close companion".
Name Census estimates that about 1,170 living Americans carry the first name Khaleel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Khaleel today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khaleel births was 1999 (54 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khaleel. 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
1.2K
~ 1 in 292,952 Americans
Peak year
1999
54 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,605
Tracked since 1975
Popularity
Khaleel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khaleel from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 302 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khaleel 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 Khaleel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Khaleels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. New York, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Khaleel, while Maryland, Ohio, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Khaleel
The name Khaleel has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "khalil" which means "friend" or "beloved". The name was commonly used in the Middle East and North Africa regions during the medieval Islamic era.
One of the earliest known references to the name Khaleel can be found in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. It is mentioned as one of the names attributed to the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) in the verse "And Allah took Ibrahim as a Khalil" (Quran 4:125), meaning a close friend or beloved of Allah.
The first recorded person with the name Khaleel was Khaleel ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718-786 CE), an Arab philologist and lexicographer from Basra, Iraq. He is considered one of the pioneers of Arabic linguistics and the author of the first Arabic dictionary, Kitab al-Ayn.
Another notable historical figure with the name Khaleel was Khaleel ibn Shahin al-Zahiri (776-845 CE), an Arab jurist and scholar from Baghdad. He was a prominent figure in the Zahiri school of Islamic jurisprudence and wrote several influential works on Islamic law.
In the 11th century, Khaleel ibn Aybak al-Safadi (1029-1090 CE) was a renowned Arab poet and literary critic from Safad, Palestine. His poetry was widely celebrated during his lifetime, and he is considered one of the greatest poets of the Abbasid era.
During the Mamluk period in Egypt, Khaleel ibn Aybak al-Tawrizi (1235-1299 CE) was a prominent Arab astronomer and mathematician from Damascus. He made significant contributions to the fields of astronomy and trigonometry and wrote several works on these subjects.
In the 14th century, Khaleel ibn Aybak al-Mansuri (1313-1384 CE) was a celebrated Arab physician and philosopher from Cairo, Egypt. He was known for his expertise in medicine and his philosophical writings, which were influenced by the works of Aristotle and Avicenna.
These are just a few examples of notable historical figures who bore the name Khaleel. The name has a rich cultural and linguistic heritage, and its meaning as "friend" or "beloved" has been a source of inspiration for many throughout history.
People
Khaleel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khaleel 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
Khaleel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khaleel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,170 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khaleel 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 292,952 US residents.
Is Khaleel a common name?
We classify Khaleel as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,187 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khaleel most popular?
The single biggest year for Khaleel was 1999, when 54 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khaleel is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Khaleel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Khaleel in the SSA data are male. 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.