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Caliber

KAH-luh-ber /ˈkæ.lər/

At a glance

U.S. rank 2025
#8,243 of boy names (outside the top 1,000)
Babies in 2025
9 (<0.01% of boys)
Trend
Slipping #4,855 in 2020 to #8,243 in 2025
Peak
#3,990 in 2016
First recorded
2004

Meaning of Caliber

Caliber (pronounced KAH-lə-bər) emerges in contemporary Anglo-American naming practice as a masculine given name directly appropriated from the English noun “caliber,” itself derived from French calibre and ultimately from Italian calibro, originally denoting the internal diameter of a barrel or tube. In its adoption as a personal name, Caliber conveys connotations of precision, measurement and inherent quality, articulating an aspirational framework in which notions of capability and standard are foregrounded within an appellative construct. Its modest yet consistent appearance in recent U.S. naming registers underscores both its distinctiveness and its conceptual weight, positioning the name as a deliberate choice for parents inclined toward appellations that fuse technical resonance with understated gravitas. Through semantic transference from instrumentality to identity, Caliber achieves a balance between pragmatic clarity and articulated ambition, reflecting a broader cultural interest in names that offer both descriptive exactitude and social distinction.

How to pronounce Caliber

English

Popularity of Caliber in the U.S.

Caliber was the #8,243 boy name in the U.S. in 2025, with 9 babies. It peaked at #3,990 in 2016. It first appears in the records in 2004.

Bar and line chart: Caliber in the U.S., 2004–2025. Bars: boys given the name each year, most 26 in 2016 and 9 in 2025. Line: rank among boy names, peak #3,990 in 2016, #8,243 in 2025.
  • Boys named Caliber (left scale)
  • Rank among U.S. boy names (right scale, #1 at the top)
By year, 2004–2025. Source: SSA. Download: PNG · SVG
Year-by-year table, 2004⁠–⁠2025 20 rows
Caliber: babies and rank among boy names in the U.S. by year
YearBabiesRankvs previous year
202598,243▼ 2,044
2024146,199▼ 272
2023155,927▼ 712
2022185,215▼ 435
2021204,780▲ 75
2020194,855▲ 700
2019165,555▼ 1,329
2018244,226▲ 1,300
2017165,526▼ 1,536
2016263,990▲ 4,754
201588,744▼ 2,437
2014136,307▲ 719
2013117,026▲ 1,838
201288,864▲ 736
201179,600▲ 93
201079,693▲ 171
200979,864▲ 1,173
2008611,037▼ 116
2007610,921back (not recorded in 2005–2006)
200469,948new