Kai
Kai is ranked 76th among boys in 2024 (4,276 births). Its best rank was 59th, in 2022.
- Rank in 2024
- #76down 15 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 4,2760.25% of boys
- Peak year
- 20225,366 births
- Best rank
- #59in 2022
- Since 1926
- 74,652people given the name
The story in the numbers
66,409 boys have been named Kai in the United States since 1926, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2022, with 5,366 births — 0.31% of all boys recorded that year.
It has never been more used than now: its record year is 2022, within the last few years of data.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 2017, and the 2010s alone account for 39%. It has spent 44 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 6 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 8,243 girls have also been given it, 11% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Kai | |
|---|---|---|
| 1920s | 6 | |
| 1930s | 6 | |
| 1940s | 10 | |
| 1950s | 148 | |
| 1960s | 341 | |
| 1970s | 593 | |
| 1980s | 960 | |
| 1990s | 2,639 | |
| 2000s | 12,620 | |
| 2010s | 25,976 | |
| 2020s | 23,110 |
In 2022, its biggest year
Kai was the 59th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 2022 were Liam, Noah, Oliver, James and Elijah. See all of 2022.
Names that rose and fell with Kai
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Mahirpeak 2024
- Zamirpeak 2023
- Zahirpeak 2023
- Zaydpeak 2024
- Elyaspeak 2024
- Zyanpeak 2024
- Mattiaspeak 2021
- Valenpeak 2023
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.