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The first name 
Kali

Kali is a first name typically given to girls, but in rare cases also used as a boys name.

Kali – popular and common in the US!

The name Kali isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Kali ranks 278. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 7 were named Kali. If you polled the whole US population – children, adults and seniors – you’d find less than one in 10,000 to be named Kali.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Kali

What does the name 
Kali mean?

Kali means ‘the black one’ in Sanskrit. The Hindu goddess Kali is fierce and destructive. She is usually depicted with black skin and four arms, holding a severed head and brandishing a sword.

Sanskrit is the sacred ... language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It arose in South Asia.

Kali -
at home in every state from California to New York

The name Kali may not be in the top rankings of the most popular girls’ names, but it is one of the few female given names, along with only 536 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Kali is apparently especially popular in Nevada. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular women’s names here either, one in 2,304 women in Nevada is called Kali. In total, that’s 190 women who feel addressed when the name Kali is shouted loudly across Nevada and who ensure that their name makes it to #484 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common female names in this nice state. If you asked all women in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Kali as the answer a total of 26,121 times. This places Kali at #749 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular women’s names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living women across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Kali as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.

Kali has 4 letters 
and begins with a K

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter K is a real popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 7.5% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters A, S and M are more common for girls' names.

With four letters, the name Kali is shorter than most other given names. In fact, only 5.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly four letters. Just 1.2% of all first names are even shorter, while 93% consist of more than four letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 7.5% of all girls' names start with a K, this initial letter occurs more than twice as often as all 26 letters on average. Interesting detail: of all the girls' names that begin with a K, Karen is the most common.

Other names with 
K, a, l and i

If you take all the letters in the name Kali – K, a, l and i – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Kail or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Kali

If your name is Kali and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Kali

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Kali, you can simply say:

Koala

Apple

Lion

Igloo

This is how the name Kali is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Kali in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Kali

Kali

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Kali

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Kali is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

K
A
L
I

Have you ever waved the name Kali

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

K
A
L
I

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Kali sounds like this: