Kaleb
- Pronunciation
- [Ka-leb]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Amharic And Tigrinya Of Ethiopia Name Referring To The Biblical Cain.
- Origin
- African
About the Name Kaleb
Kaleb is a modern English alternate spelling of Caleb (see separate entry on Caleb for the Hebrew Kalev etymology meaning "wholehearted" or "faithful"). The K-spelling Kaleb is essentially a 21st-century American invention, appearing in SSA records starting in the late 1990s.
The Kaleb spelling is part of the broader contemporary American trend toward replacing C-spellings with K-spellings (Khloe, Kayleigh, Kaleb, Krista). The K-spelling visual register signals modern-American aesthetic, particularly in evangelical Christian American communities where the name carries significant biblical register. The two spellings (Caleb and Kaleb) are tracked separately by SSA and represent the same underlying Hebrew name.
Kaleb's American climb took it from outside the US top 1000 in 2000 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 2014 and has held that range since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the modern K-spelling visual register, the underlying Hebrew biblical pedigree (the loyal Hebrew spy of the Exodus narrative), and the popular two-syllable hard-consonant structure. The name reads as both biblically anchored and distinctly contemporary American. Notable bearers besides the broader Caleb tradition include various contemporary athletes, country music personalities, and reality-TV figures. Common nicknames Kal, Kale, and the rare Kaleby each carry distinct registers; the alternate spelling Caleb (the historical English form) has its own SSA tracking and remains slightly more common than Kaleb. There are no significant international variants since the K-spelling is essentially modern American; the original Hebrew Kalev remains in use in Israeli Hebrew naming.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kaleb
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Kaleb by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2007 with 3,819 boys named Kaleb (boy rank #113 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #295 for boys (1,143 US births). That's 182 places below its 2007 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Kaleb Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Kaleb the strongest states are Mississippi, Hawaii, Georgia.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #123 | 272 |
| 2 | Hawaii | #143 | 67 |
| 3 | Georgia | #149 | 821 |
| 4 | Alabama | #161 | 364 |
| 5 | Florida | #166 | 1,241 |
| 6 | South Carolina | #171 | 322 |
| 7 | Delaware | #172 | 42 |
| 8 | New Mexico | #181 | 121 |
| 9 | Maryland | #182 | 337 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #187 | 629 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kaleb in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Kaleb?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Kaleb to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kaleb against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).