Kayle is a surname and unisex given name. As a Yiddish feminine given name, Kayle originated as a variant of Keyle, meaning "merry"; it is cognate with the modern German word geil. Kayle is also a variant of the masculine given name Kale, which may have originated as an Anglicisation of the Irish name Cathal, or as a masculine equivalent of Kaylee; other variants include Caile, Cayle, Cale, Kaile, and Kail. The 2000 United States Census found 104 people with the surname Kayle, making it the 146,011th-most-common name in the country. About nine-tenths of the bearers of the surname identified as non-Hispanic white, with small numbers identifying as Black or Asian, but none as Hispanic.
