Given name & surname · also Arabic
Kala
“son of the sun”
Kala is used as a given name and a surname. One Hawaiian interpretation is “son of the sun.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Hawaiian interpretation is “son of the sun.”
Where it comes from
This spelling has been associated with Arabic and Hawaiian naming traditions.
How it developed
Kala is a form of Sarah. The shared background comes through Sarah: In the biblical account, Sarai is renamed Sarah as part of a blessing. Later Irish and Scottish uses sometimes adopted Sarah in place of local Gaelic names, a separate practice from its Hebrew origin.
Explained through its name family
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1943. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin. Kala is a form of Sarah. The history of Sarah gives this family its wider story. Sarah is remembered in Genesis as Abraham’s wife and Isaac’s mother. Sarah’s later local adaptations included use for Sorcha in Ireland and Mor in Scotland, showing how an established biblical name could serve different naming traditions.
Combines direct and name-family evidence
Kala through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 7,772
- 92 boys · 7,680 girls
- Most popular year
- 1989
- 533 babies
- 2025
- 10
- #9,765 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −41%
- Cooling
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 10 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 9,765 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 40.7% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 525 in 1989. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 7,549 as a first name in 2020; 787 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Kala’s family of names
Kala is a form of Sarah. In Hawaiian usage, Kala has a conventional equivalent in the English form Sarah. Kala has a related form in Kalah.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 3
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Kala
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
Similar names
If you love Kala, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Abra
“father of a multitude (of nations)” · “father of a multitude; father of nations”
>99% girls
Hanna
“God is gracious”
>99% girls
Keturah
“incense”
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Telah
“fracture”
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Homon
Homon is a given name, probably from Biblical Hebrew, ultimately from Old Persian. It is used in Judeo-Tat.
—
Shalise
“place name from the Bible”
>99% girls
یوسفی
“to add”
—
हव्वा
हव्वा (havvā) is a feminine given name from Classical Persian, ultimately from Biblical Hebrew. It is used in Hindi.
>99% girls