Meaning and history
Caleb is most likely related to Hebrew כֶּלֶב (kelev), meaning “dog,” though an alternate theory links it to Hebrew כֹּל (kol), “whole, all of,” and לֵב (lev), “heart.” In the Old Testament, it is the name of one of the twelve spies Moses sent into Canaan, and among the Israelites who left Egypt with him, only Caleb and Joshua lived to enter the Promised Land. As an English name, Caleb came into use after the Protestant Reformation and was especially common among the Puritans, who brought it to America in the 17th century.
20062006: 11,001 births, rank #34
2007: 10,954 births, rank #36
2008: 10,579 births, rank #34
2009: 11,001 births, rank #31
2010: 10,485 births, rank #32
20112011: 10,040 births, rank #32
2012: 9,977 births, rank #32
2013: 9,612 births, rank #32
2014: 9,245 births, rank #35
2015: 8,826 births, rank #37
20162016: 7,982 births, rank #44
2017: 7,154 births, rank #50
2018: 6,997 births, rank #45
2019: 6,416 births, rank #51
2020: 5,616 births, rank #56
20212021: 5,964 births, rank #51
2022: 5,778 births, rank #52
2023: 5,533 births, rank #51
2024: 5,795 births, rank #49
20252025: 5,217 births, rank #58
Caleb has unusual staying power. It appears in the US records as early as 1880 and still ranks #58 for boys in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2002, with 11,665 births.