Meaning not yet researched.
Cale: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 47 in 2025. Its best rank was #596 in 1984.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #596 in 1984; #2,722 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Cale in 2025 was a boy.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#2,722 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 1984, at #596.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Cale: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 47 boys in 2025. Peak: #596 in 1984 · most boys in one year: 395 (2008).
In 2025, 47 US boys were named Cale, making it the 2,722nd most common boys’ name of the year, up 505 places from #3,227 in 2024. That is 10 more than the 37 boys named Cale in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #596, reached in 1984. The most boys given the name in a single year was 395, in 2008. For comparison, it was #1,279 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Cale in 72 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1917 with 8 babies. In all, 8,291 US babies have been given the name, 1.0% of them girls and 99% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2000s, with 2,797 babies named Cale.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 467 US boys were named Cale; the busiest of those years was 2016, with 91. In 2025 that was about 1 in 36,342 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Cale ranked highest in Colorado in 2025, at #775 for boys there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Caleb (325,003 babies since 1880), Cal (7,868 babies since 1880), Kale (7,605 babies since 1880) and Kayle (4,654 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Kaile, Cayle and Calle are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Rare spellings summarised here: Kaile (721), Cayle (383), Calle (218), Kahle (115), Cail (59), Kaele (43), Cayl (22), Caile (11).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Cale in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 50 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | 6 | #775 | — |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | — | — | 47 | #2,722 |
| 2024 | — | — | 37 | #3,227 |
| 2023 | — | — | 31 | #3,640 |
| 2022 | — | — | 44 | #2,879 |
| 2021 | — | — | 33 | #3,432 |
| 2020 | — | — | 41 | #2,891 |
| 2019 | — | — | 43 | #2,864 |
| 2018 | — | — | 42 | #2,853 |
| 2017 | — | — | 58 | #2,278 |
| 2016 | — | — | 91 | #1,706 |
| 2015 | — | — | 140 | #1,279 |
| 2014 | — | — | 175 | #1,093 |
| 2013 | — | — | 180 | #1,054 |
| 2012 | — | — | 227 | #911 |
| 2011 | — | — | 259 | #833 |
| 2010 | 8 | #12,493 | 339 | #691 |
| 2009 | 11 | #10,101 | 366 | #669 |
| 2008 | 14 | #8,615 | 395 | #624 |
| 2007 | 17 | #7,451 | 323 | #714 |
| 2006 | 34 | #4,276 | 288 | #741 |
| 2005 | — | — | 262 | #758 |
| 2004 | — | — | 233 | #779 |
| 2003 | — | — | 237 | #754 |
| 2002 | — | — | 232 | #746 |
| 2001 | — | — | 194 | #837 |
| 2000 | — | — | 191 | #839 |
| 1999 | — | — | 166 | #903 |
| 1998 | — | — | 170 | #856 |
| 1997 | — | — | 132 | #981 |
| 1996 | — | — | 143 | #915 |
| 1995 | — | — | 119 | #1,016 |
| 1994 | — | — | 132 | #959 |
| 1993 | — | — | 138 | #916 |
| 1992 | — | — | 150 | #864 |
| 1991 | — | — | 148 | #863 |
| 1990 | — | — | 125 | #922 |
| 1989 | — | — | 120 | #926 |
| 1988 | — | — | 140 | #801 |
| 1987 | — | — | 162 | #717 |
| 1986 | — | — | 173 | #689 |
| 1985 | — | — | 186 | #642 |
| 1984 | — | — | 203 | #596 |
| 1983 | — | — | 128 | #764 |
| 1982 | — | — | 89 | #952 |
| 1981 | — | — | 89 | #955 |
| 1980 | — | — | 100 | #894 |
| 1979 | — | — | 94 | #902 |
| 1978 | — | — | 88 | #921 |
| 1977 | — | — | 102 | #847 |
| 1976 | — | — | 62 | #1,056 |
| 1975 | — | — | 62 | #1,055 |
| 1974 | — | — | 58 | #1,083 |
| 1973 | — | — | 43 | #1,256 |
| 1972 | — | — | 45 | #1,232 |
| 1971 | — | — | 76 | #935 |
| 1970 | — | — | 75 | #922 |
| 1969 | — | — | 60 | #990 |
| 1968 | — | — | 31 | #1,396 |
| 1967 | — | — | 9 | #2,799 |
| 1966 | — | — | 13 | #2,230 |
| 1964 | — | — | 6 | #3,654 |
| 1959 | — | — | 5 | #4,058 |
| 1958 | — | — | 5 | #4,023 |
| 1957 | — | — | 7 | #3,285 |
| 1955 | — | — | 5 | #3,948 |
| 1952 | — | — | 5 | #3,807 |
| 1947 | — | — | 6 | #3,419 |
| 1943 | — | — | 5 | #3,612 |
| 1931 | — | — | 5 | #3,837 |
| 1930 | — | — | 6 | #3,646 |
| 1922 | — | — | 5 | #4,392 |
| 1917 | — | — | 8 | #2,989 |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).