Khaliya
A feminine Arabic name meaning "friend" or "close companion".
Name Census estimates that about 472 living Americans carry the first name Khaliya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Khaliya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khaliya births was 2015 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khaliya. 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 Khaliya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
472
~ 1 in 726,174 Americans
Peak year
2015
36 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,398
Tracked since 1995
Census
Khaliya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 299 people with the first name Khaliya, which placed it at #29,541 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
#29,541
National first-name rank
People counted
299
299 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khaliya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khaliya is Black at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.4%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Khaliya 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 Khaliya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.9% · 233
- Two or more races8.4% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 16
- White4.0% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 6
Popularity
Khaliya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khaliya 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 207 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Khaliya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khaliya 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 Khaliya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Khaliyas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Khaliya
The name Khaliya has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "khali," which means "aunt" or "paternal aunt." This name gained popularity in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Khaliya can be found in the writings of the renowned Arab poet Al-Mutanabbi, who lived from 915 to 965 CE. In one of his poems, he mentioned a woman named Khaliya, although little is known about her beyond her name.
In the 11th century, a notable figure named Khaliya bint Al-Hussain emerged in the city of Baghdad. She was known for her expertise in the field of medicine and her contributions to the advancement of medical knowledge during the Golden Age of Islamic civilization.
During the Mamluk period in Egypt, which lasted from the 13th to the 16th century, there is a record of a woman named Khaliya Al-Misriyya, who was celebrated for her skill in calligraphy and her beautiful handwriting.
In the 14th century, a prominent scholar and poet from Persia, Khaliya Al-Shirazi, gained recognition for her literary works and her mastery of the Persian language. Her poems and writings were widely circulated and admired during her lifetime.
Another notable figure with the name Khaliya was Khaliya Al-Andalusiya, a skilled musician and singer who lived in the Andalusian region of Spain during the 10th century. She was renowned for her beautiful voice and her ability to captivate audiences with her performances.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who bore the name Khaliya. While the name has its roots in the Arabic language, it has also been adopted and used in various regions and cultures influenced by Arab and Islamic civilization over the centuries.
People
Khaliya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khaliya 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
Khaliya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khaliya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 472 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khaliya 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 726,174 US residents.
Is Khaliya a common name?
We classify Khaliya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 477 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khaliya most popular?
The single biggest year for Khaliya was 2015, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khaliya is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Khaliya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 299 people with the name Khaliya, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,541 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 Khaliya 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 Khaliya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khaliya appears almost entirely female. Of the 294 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Khaliya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khaliya is Black at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.4%) and Hispanic (5.4%). 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 Khaliya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Khaliya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.9% (233 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 Khaliya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khaliya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Khaliya 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 Khaliya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khaliya 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 Khaliya 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 are called Khaliya?
Find out how many Americans are named Khaliya on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.