Meaning not yet researched.
Kale: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 11 in 2025. Its best rank was #504 in 2008.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #504 in 2008; #7,419 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Kale in 2025 was a boy.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#7,419 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 2008, at #504.
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.
Kale: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 11 boys in 2025. Peak: #504 in 2008 · most boys in one year: 544 (2008).
In 2025, 11 US boys were named Kale, making it the 7,419th most common boys’ name of the year, down 2,083 places from #5,336 in 2024. That is 7 fewer than the 18 boys named Kale in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #504, reached in 2008. That year also had the most boys given the name: 544. For comparison, it was #1,097 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Kale in 76 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1917 with 6 babies. In all, 7,605 US babies have been given the name, 3.0% of them girls and 97% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2000s, with 2,985 babies named Kale.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 353 US boys were named Kale; the busiest of those years was 2016, with 101. In 2025 that was about 1 in 155,280 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Related spellings in the SSA files include Cale (8,291 babies since 1880), Kalen (6,096 babies since 1880), Kal (1,256 babies since 1880) and Cal (7,868 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Kaiel, Kayel and Kahel 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: Kaiel (329), Kayel (18), Kahel (18), Kaell (7), Kaille (6), Kaylle (5).
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 Kale in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | — | — | 11 | #7,419 |
| 2024 | — | — | 18 | #5,336 |
| 2023 | — | — | 13 | #6,708 |
| 2022 | — | — | 23 | #4,503 |
| 2021 | — | — | 28 | #3,871 |
| 2020 | — | — | 25 | #4,081 |
| 2019 | — | — | 26 | #4,059 |
| 2018 | — | — | 46 | #2,688 |
| 2017 | — | — | 62 | #2,177 |
| 2016 | — | — | 101 | #1,607 |
| 2015 | — | — | 177 | #1,097 |
| 2014 | — | — | 216 | #971 |
| 2013 | 5 | #17,888 | 259 | #830 |
| 2012 | 11 | #10,055 | 325 | #722 |
| 2011 | 5 | #18,129 | 424 | #590 |
| 2010 | 13 | #8,959 | 423 | #591 |
| 2009 | 15 | #8,242 | 521 | #518 |
| 2008 | 23 | #6,030 | 544 | #504 |
| 2007 | 18 | #7,238 | 382 | #635 |
| 2006 | 23 | #5,812 | 272 | #767 |
| 2005 | 10 | #10,504 | 264 | #754 |
| 2004 | — | — | 225 | #803 |
| 2003 | 5 | #16,990 | 184 | #907 |
| 2002 | — | — | 179 | #904 |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,381 | 158 | #975 |
| 2000 | 6 | #13,996 | 150 | #990 |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,461 | 128 | #1,065 |
| 1998 | 5 | #15,260 | 137 | #999 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,399 | 103 | #1,173 |
| 1996 | — | — | 93 | #1,210 |
| 1995 | — | — | 94 | #1,196 |
| 1994 | — | — | 107 | #1,082 |
| 1993 | 8 | #10,013 | 109 | #1,067 |
| 1992 | 6 | #12,461 | 100 | #1,103 |
| 1991 | — | — | 91 | #1,159 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,662 | 108 | #1,021 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,479 | 93 | #1,098 |
| 1988 | 6 | #10,986 | 108 | #920 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,452 | 119 | #859 |
| 1986 | — | — | 83 | #1,017 |
| 1985 | 8 | #7,895 | 92 | #955 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,657 | 65 | #1,126 |
| 1983 | 9 | #6,971 | 49 | #1,340 |
| 1982 | — | — | 42 | #1,503 |
| 1981 | — | — | 51 | #1,300 |
| 1980 | — | — | 43 | #1,455 |
| 1979 | 5 | #10,905 | 37 | #1,585 |
| 1978 | — | — | 44 | #1,402 |
| 1977 | — | — | 36 | #1,559 |
| 1976 | — | — | 32 | #1,660 |
| 1975 | — | — | 36 | #1,490 |
| 1974 | — | — | 30 | #1,635 |
| 1973 | — | — | 32 | #1,528 |
| 1972 | — | — | 20 | #2,049 |
| 1971 | — | — | 27 | #1,727 |
| 1970 | — | — | 28 | #1,640 |
| 1969 | — | — | 16 | #2,182 |
| 1968 | — | — | 16 | #2,070 |
| 1967 | — | — | 13 | #2,295 |
| 1966 | — | — | 9 | #2,881 |
| 1965 | — | — | 7 | #3,403 |
| 1964 | — | — | 9 | #2,964 |
| 1963 | — | — | 14 | #2,258 |
| 1962 | — | — | 16 | #2,081 |
| 1961 | — | — | 8 | #3,229 |
| 1960 | — | — | 9 | #2,970 |
| 1959 | — | — | 5 | #4,282 |
| 1958 | — | — | 7 | #3,418 |
| 1957 | — | — | 7 | #3,407 |
| 1956 | — | — | 12 | #2,436 |
| 1953 | — | — | 5 | #4,088 |
| 1952 | — | — | 5 | #4,003 |
| 1945 | — | — | 6 | #3,163 |
| 1937 | — | — | 5 | #3,796 |
| 1925 | — | — | 11 | #2,674 |
| 1917 | — | — | 6 | #3,761 |
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).