girl's name
Kaylee
KAY-lee
- Origin American
- Gender Girl
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 150,262
the United States
#255
2025 births
Kaylee is an invented name with no single source — it fuses the Kay and Lee sounds that were already everywhere, and the meanings assigned to it afterwards were reverse-engineered. It peaked in 2009.
- Kaylee is a name of American origin.
- Peaked in 2009, when 7,225 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 2,751 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1943.
Kaylee over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1940s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 5 |
| 1950s | 5 |
| 1960s | 73 |
| 1970s | 186 |
| 1980s | 3,507 |
| 1990s | 25,228 |
| 2000s | 56,543 |
| 2010s | 44,669 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 10,385 |
What Kaylee means
Kaylee has no established meaning. It was assembled from fashionable sounds rather than descended from a word, and the readings offered — pure, meadow, slender — were attached later to fill the gap.
Where Kaylee comes from
Kaylee is a modern American coinage combining the Kay of Kayla and Kaitlyn with the -lee ending of Ashlee and Haylee. It has no single parent: various sources connect it to the Irish Céilidh, a dance gathering, to the Gaelic caol, slender, or to the English Kayley surname, and none of these is the actual source of the American name, which is simply built from popular sounds. It is one of the clearest cases on this site of a name that arrived meaningless and had meanings assigned to it retrospectively.
Kaylee in use
Kaylee peaked in the United States in 2009, when 7,225 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 255th in the United States on 1,205 births, 871st in France on 45, 996th in Scotland and 2116th in England and Wales on 14, across 150,262 lifetime births in five of the seven markets we track. Our records carry it from 1943 but almost all volume falls after 1990.
How popular is Kaylee?
In 2025, Kaylee was given to 1,205 babies in the United States, ranking #255 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Kaylee is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Kaylee is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Kay-Lee | Kay-Lee is Kaylee written with a hyphen, recorded mostly in Canada. | 16 |
Names that peaked alongside Kaylee
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Kaylee also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Kaylee over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Kaylee
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Kaylee in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Dutch
- Kayleigh
Sibling names for Kaylee
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Kaylee — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Kaylee
What does the name Kaylee mean?
Nothing established. It was assembled from fashionable sounds and had meanings assigned afterwards.
Is Kaylee Irish?
No, though it is often linked to céilidh, a dance gathering. The American name is a modern coinage.
Which spelling is most common?
Kaylee in America and Kayleigh in Britain, with Kaylie and Caylee also in use.
How popular is Kaylee?
255th in the United States, down from a 2009 peak of 7,219 births.
Is Kaylee a girl's or a boy's name?
Kaylee is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
What are the nicknames for Kaylee?
Kaylee is usually shortened to Kay.
Is Kaylee a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Kaylee currently ranks #255 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.