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Cayley

#12,165 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Kaylee

Cayley has been given to 1,213 babies in the U.S. since 1984. In 2025 it ranked #12,165 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1998, with 75 recorded.

Babies named Cayley, 2025

1 in 474,000

Cayley over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Cayley: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Kaylee

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Cayley means

Cayley is a variant of Kaylee.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Cayley is used in English (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈkeɪ.li/ for Cayley.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Kaylee.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,213 girls were recorded with the name Cayley between 1984 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 75 in 1998; its best national rank was #1,991 in 1998.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #9,700 in 2020 to #12,165 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,870 in 2015 to #12,165 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Cayley?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 230,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#12,165
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Cayley sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cayley. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cayleys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Cayley was born before 2001 — so the typical Cayley is around 24 today.

Median birth year
2001
About 24 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
39.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
53.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,213
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 39.7% of all recorded uses (482).

Is Cayley 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
+3,577
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,465
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−6,295
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.32×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
9.3%
Peak was 1998 (75)
Years since peak
27
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,991
1998

Spellings of Cayley

Cayley is not the most common spelling — Hailey is, with 14.1% against Cayley's 0.09%.

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.

Where Cayley is used

Across 1910–2025, Cayley was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 422,405 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Florida1 in —
  3. 3Georgia1 in —
  4. 4Illinois1 in —
  5. 5Michigan1 in —
  6. 6North Carolina1 in —
  7. 7New York1 in —
  8. 8Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Cayley has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Cayley around the world

Where Cayley 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 & Wales
    2000–2012
    #4,838
    in 2012
  • Canada
    1991–2020
    #3,347
    in 2020
  • South Australia
    1998–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Cayley by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#12,165
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,465
Best rank ever
#1,991
1998
Peak year
1998
75 that year
First recorded
1984
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,213
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Cayley

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CaylieCaydenCaylenCaylinCayceeRenleyZaileyAisleyRidleyLynleyCalleyRhileyLinleyValleyEmileyEmsleyRaileyCaydeeCayliKalleyHazleyKesleyBayleyEisley

Sibling names for Cayley

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Cayley

Top names of 1998, Cayley's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1998Girls' names starting with C