MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Kali mean?
Kālī is the feminine dark-colour form and the goddess name, distinct in vowel length from kali in the age-name Kali Yuga. The long first ā distinguishes Kālī from kalī, a flower bud. The goddess is a fierce form of the divine feminine, often shown with a garland of heads.
Pronunciation
IAST: kālī
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
काली
Letter-by-letter: kālī
Conventional spelling
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Kali in Indian usage
153,773 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Used for both boys and girls in these historical records; the recorded sex does not determine anyone’s identity.
- Recorded as female: 112,671 records (73.3%).
- Recorded as male: 41,102 records (26.7%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1930s | 5,975 |
| 1940s | 13,357 |
| 1950s | 20,916 |
| 1960s | 28,634 |
| 1970s | 27,598 |
| 1980s | 31,241 |
| 1990s | 24,682 |
| Other decades | 1,370 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Rajasthan | 57,471 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 30,584 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 16,698 |
| Jharkhand | 10,048 |
| Bihar | 9,403 |
| Kerala | 7,671 |
| Odisha | 7,299 |
| Haryana | 3,575 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 2,878 |
| Punjab | 1,524 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 1,435 |
| Maharashtra | 1,356 |
| Uttarakhand | 1,313 |
| Assam | 709 |
| Delhi | 607 |
| Tripura | 306 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 189 |
| Nagaland | 140 |
| Chandigarh | 121 |
| Other states | 446 |
How to read these numbers
Small counts and a second count where needed are withheld for privacy; an omitted value is not zero. Coverage, dates and suppression.
Recorded abroad
Official births registered in 2025, for the exact spelling shown.
| Jurisdiction | Spelling / recorded sex | Births | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | Kali / F | 26 | 1,229 |
| Scotland | Kali / F | 9 | 359 |
ONS and National Records of Scotland; Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3. Counts follow each office’s publication rules.
Explore related lists
Sources
- Historical Indian voter-record totals, v3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Historical usage; CC0 1.0; birth years 1910–2001
- England & Wales 2025 birth statistics: Exact spelling Kali; Table_6, C1256 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Kali; Table_6, C1256
- Scotland 2025 birth statistics: Exact spelling Kali; full-list-1974-2025.csv; 2025 Girl ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Kali; full-list-1974-2025.csv; 2025 Girl
- Wiktionary: काली ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
- Wiktionary: Kali ↗ (opens in a new tab)
origin
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.