Kai
The 2025 national count puts Kai at #93, cooling off gently. Its record runs from 1926 through a 2022 peak, 70,232 children in all.
Kai’s free Name Kit
Five printables for Kai, drawn in your browser at print size the moment you ask: a name print for the wall, a nursery sign, a tracing sheet, a shortlist sheet, and twelve sibling names with the reason for each. Letter size, 300 dpi, in the site’s own hand.
- Name print Meaning, origin and the popularity curve on one sheet, ready for a frame.
- Nursery sign The name big and bright, for a door, a shelf or the top of a dresser.
- Tracing sheet The name in dotted letters, with room to go over it again and again.
- Shortlist sheet A page for weighing names side by side: initials, nicknames, how it sounds with yours.
- Sibling names sheet Twelve names that go with this one, each with the reason, from the sibling matcher.
Name print
Meaning, origin and the popularity curve on one sheet, ready for a frame.
Nursery sign
The name big and bright, for a door, a shelf or the top of a dresser.
Tracing sheet
The name in dotted letters, with room to go over it again and again.
Shortlist sheet
A page for weighing names side by side: initials, nicknames, how it sounds with yours.
Sibling names sheet
Twelve names that go with this one, each with the reason, from the sibling matcher.
Print on plain letter paper or heavier card; the sign and the print look best on matte stock.
Kai since 1926
Kai peaked in 2022 at #59; #93 in 2025.
United States national data, Social Security Administration, through 2025, how we use it.
Where Kai is most common
Among the states, Kai takes its largest share in Hawaii, 1.03% of the boys' names recorded there in 2025, with Rhode Island and New Mexico next.
Share of the state's recorded names for that sex, from the Social Security Administration's state file; a name is listed in a state only when five or more babies received it there that year.
Names that sit near Kai
Same shelf of the library: origin, era and shape, scored deterministically.
Kaia
#193 in 2025
Knox
#196 in 2025
Kinsley
#93 in 2025
Quinn
#97 in 2025
Gael
#86 in 2025
Kennedy
#85 in 2025
Theo
#82 in 2025
Zoey
#69 in 2025
Browse: names starting with K · all names
About Kai
How common is Kai today?
The 2025 national count puts Kai at #93, cooling off gently. The chart above draws the whole run since 1926, from the Social Security Administration's public data.
What is the recorded meaning of Kai?
The 1884 reference we quote from has no entry for Kai. Rather than borrow a gloss from somewhere we cannot cite, the page leaves the meaning blank and lets the chart speak.
What names go with Kai?
On origin, era, syllables and first letter, Kaia sits closest, with Knox and Kinsley just behind. Give the matcher the names already in the house and it scores the whole top thousand against them.
Get Kai’s free Name Kit
Five printables made in your browser: a name print for the wall, a nursery sign, a tracing sheet, a shortlist sheet and twelve sibling names with the reason for each. Yours in a moment, for one email.
Make the kitThe book is in the works
A printed picture book where Kai earns every letter of their own name, page by page. See the preview pages and hear when it is ready.
Preview the book