Kayleigh
- Pronunciation
- [Kay-leigh]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Warrior
- Origin
- Scottish
About the Name Kayleigh
Kayleigh has multiple proposed origins. The most credible Irish line connects Kayleigh to the Irish Caoileach meaning "slender" or to a feminine variation of Cailín (girl). A separate Hebrew line connects Kayleigh to Kayla (a separate but related name, see below). A third proposed line connects Kayleigh to a creative variant of Hailey or Bailey with the popular -leigh ending.
The various spellings (Kayleigh, Kayley, Kaylee, Kailee, Kaylie) are tracked separately by SSA and represent the same underlying name. The Kayleigh spelling specifically appeals to parents seeking a more visually distinctive form. The name has been used predominantly for girls in modern American naming.
Notable contemporary bearers include American TV personality Kayleigh McEnany (born 1988, the American Fox News journalist and former White House Press Secretary 2020–2021); various contemporary American influencers; and the contemporary actress Kayleigh Lestrade. Kayleigh's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 1995 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the multi-cultural etymological flexibility (Irish/Hebrew), the popular three-syllable -leigh ending family (Kayleigh, Hailey, Bailey, Brinleigh), and the modern visual presence with the distinctive Y-spelling. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to vintage-revival-meets-modern names. The name reads as distinctly contemporary American. Common nicknames Kay (the dominant short form, casual and warm — also a popular standalone name on its own), Kayla (a separate but related name), Lee (back-end shortening), and the rare Leigh each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Kayleigh, Kaylee, Kayley, Kaylie, and Kailee have their own SSA tracking. International variants are minimal since the name's first-name use is essentially modern American.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kayleigh
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Kayleigh by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2009 with 1,449 girls named Kayleigh (girl rank #227 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #804 for girls (340 US births). That's 577 places below its 2009 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 Kayleigh Most Popular?
Average girl-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 girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Kayleigh the strongest states are Mississippi, Delaware, New Hampshire.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #132 | 205 |
| 2 | Delaware | #170 | 18 |
| 3 | New Hampshire | #233 | 15 |
| 4 | South Carolina | #235 | 196 |
| 5 | Alabama | #259 | 195 |
| 6 | New Mexico | #265 | 30 |
| 7 | West Virginia | #284 | 40 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #323 | 333 |
| 9 | Virginia | #325 | 265 |
| 10 | Connecticut | #347 | 66 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #908 | 184 |
| 2 | Colorado | #816 | 45 |
| 3 | Minnesota | #783 | 26 |
| 4 | Arizona | #746 | 75 |
| 5 | Washington | #709 | 58 |
| 6 | Oregon | #666 | 16 |
| 7 | Indiana | #658 | 102 |
| 8 | Illinois | #658 | 153 |
| 9 | Missouri | #650 | 89 |
| 10 | Michigan | #606 | 130 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kayleigh in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Kayleigh?
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 Kayleigh to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kayleigh against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).