Name Awesome

Kale

#7,415 in 2025Boys' name

Free man, through Charles

Kale has been given to 7,605 babies in the U.S. since 1917. In 2025 it ranked #7,415 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2008, with 544 recorded.

Babies named Kale, 2025

1 in 301,000

Kale over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kale: meaning, origin, and history

Free man, through Charles

Danish and English

What Kale means

Kale belongs to the name family reached through Kale → Charles. Its meaning is “free man”.

Origin, language, and formation

Kale is used in Greenlandic and Hawaiian. Its origins include Danish and English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Charles.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Hawaiian, Kale is pronounced /ˈka.le/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,379 boys were recorded with the name Kale between 1917 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 544 in 2008; its best national rank was #504 in 2008.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,077 in 2020 to #7,415 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,097 in 2015 to #7,415 in 2025.

In the United States, 226 girls were recorded with the name Kale between 1979 and 2013. Its highest annual count was 23 in 2006; its best national rank was #5,810 in 2006.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Kale?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 301,000
11 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 155,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,415
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
208,901 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kale sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

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 208,901 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kale. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kales were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kale was born before 2006 — so the typical Kale is around 19 today.

Median birth year
2006
About 19 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
39.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
66.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
7,351
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 39.0% of all recorded uses (2,879).

Is Kale 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
−2,083
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−3,338
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−6,318
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.06×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
2.0%
Peak was 2008 (544)
Years since peak
17
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#504
2008

Spellings of Kale

Kale is not the most common spelling — Kyle is, with 14.9% against Kale's 0.23%.

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 Kale is used

Across 1910–2025, Kale was most concentrated in Montana — about 1 in 5,000 boys, against 1 in 31,932 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

020 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Montana1 in 5,000
  2. 2Kansas1 in 5,882
  3. 3Iowa1 in 8,333
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 8,333
  5. 5North Dakota1 in 10,000
  6. 6Nebraska1 in 11,111
  7. 7Utah1 in 11,111
  8. 8Hawaii1 in 12,500

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Kale has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kale around the world

Where Kale 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
    1997–2018
    #3,959
    in 2018
  • Scotland
    2011–2011
    #491
    in 2011
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,231
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1979–2013
    #754
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Kale

People whose public names include Kale, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Kale in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Kale. Linked forms have their own page here.

KalCaleKalenKalle

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Kale by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,415
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,338
Best rank ever
#504
2008
Peak year
2008
544 that year
First recorded
1917
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
7,379
Count in 2025
11

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,810
2006
Peak year
2006
23 that year
First recorded
1979
Last recorded
2013
All-time count
226
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kale

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

KalenKalelCaleKalvinGaleKaleoKaliKalinKalobKalibKalanKalilKallenKalKalaniKalonKalemHaleKalebKalmanKalumKallanKaledKallum

Names with a curve like Kale

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Kale, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JeramiahGiovannyJordenBraidenJermiahChaceNikhilCristopherJerimiahTrevinDavinCamren

Sibling names for Kale

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 Kale

Top names of 2008, Kale's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2008Boys' names starting with KGreenlandic Boy NamesGreenlandic NamesHawaiian Boy NamesHawaiian Names