Calais
- Gender
- Mostly boys
- Say it
- KAL-ay
- Origin
- French
Calais is a name of French origin. Too few babies were given it in the latest year to rank.
What does Calais mean?
French: the French port city
Calais is the French port nearest England; in Greek myth, Calais was a winged son of the north wind who sailed with the Argonauts.
Is Calais a girl's or a boy's name?
In recent years, Calais has been given to girls and boys, mostly boys.
How popular is Calais in the US?
No boys in the US were given it in 2025, or too few to be listed. Its busiest year was 2019, with 15 boys. It first appears in the records in 2017.
Half of all the boys named Calais in the US since 1880 were born between 2019 and 2022, the years shaded on the chart below.
Calais in the US, year by year
| Year | Boys | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 12 | #6,827 |
| 2023 | 8 | #8,916 |
| 2022 | 9 | #8,293 |
| 2021 | 11 | #7,084 |
| 2020 | 12 | #6,616 |
| 2019 | 15 | #5,808 |
| 2018 | 10 | #7,613 |
| 2017 | 7 | #9,691 |
Nicknames for Calais
- Cal 10 boys in the UK in 2025
Names related to Calais
More French names
Eleanor, Beau, Esme, Darcie, Darcy, Genevieve, Amy, Esmae, Arleth, Elle, Russell, Monty, Mallory, Percy, Lacey, Belle
Sources
Figures from Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Calais: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/calais, updated 20 October 2026.