Khalil
Meaning
"friend"
The story
Khalil is Arabic for the intimate friend, one of the warmest meanings in tonight's batches, and its most famous bearer wrote the best-selling book of poetry of the American twentieth century: Kahlil Gibran, whose Prophet has never left print since 1923. The record shows the community-carried build this site knows well: about 370 in the 1970s, 800, then 5,000 in the 1990s, 5,900, 7,000 in the 2010s, and already 6,100 so far this decade, closing on the full total. In our records it goes to boys about 25,000 to 180. It stands in the register Ali and Muhammad anchor, names carried with reverence by Muslim American families and, in Khalil's case, adopted well beyond them, a friend by definition and, on the ledger's evidence, by reception too.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Khalil peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
667 people · the #10,956 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 17
Among people named Khalil living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 125 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Khalil
Most people given the name Khalil in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Khalil deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Khalil truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Khalil fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Khalil travels
African American · A warm literary favorite in African American families.
Arab American · A familiar traditional choice in Arab American families.
Keep exploring
Names like Khalil · Arab American baby names · African American baby names · Names of poets and writers
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