Calem
#6,869 in 2025Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Calem has been given to 437 babies in the U.S. since 1977. In 2025 it ranked #6,869 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2009, with 21 recorded.
Babies named Calem, 2025
1 in 276,000
Calem over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Calem?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 276,000
- 12 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 142,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #6,869
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 191,493 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Calem sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Calem. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Calems were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Calem was born before 2009 — so the typical Calem is around 16 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 31.8% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 76.7%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 437
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 31.8% of all recorded uses (139).
Is Calem rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- +465
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +3,943
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −485
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.92×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 57.1%
- Peak was 2009 (21)
- Years since peak
- 16
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 30.4% average annual change
Spellings of Calem
Calem is not the most common spelling — Caleb is, with 19.6% against Calem's 0.03%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Calem around the world
Where Calem ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- England & Wales1996–2011#3,830in 2011
- Ireland1997–2022#657in 2022
- France2023–2023#4,735in 2023
- Canada1998–2024#3,231in 2024
- South Australia1991–2011#784in 2011
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Calem by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Calem
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Calem
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.