Kai
Boy nameKai has been given to 78,710 babies in the U.S. since 1926. It peaked in 2022 and currently ranks #93 for boys (2025).
Meaning & origin /kaɪ/
Taken into regular use in the 1990s, with earlier popularity peaks in Scandinavia and Germany. The medieval Danish Kaj is possibly of Roman origin, Latinized as Caius, like the rare medieval English male given name Kay. The German Kai may also derive from a West Frisian pet form of Gerard, Cornelius, Nicholas, or Kampe "warrior". In the U.S. Kai has also been explained as Hawaiian kai (“sea”).
Origin: Germanic languages
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Popularity over time births per year, 1880–2025
Total babies
78,710
Peak year
2022 (5,732 babies)
Rank in 2025
#93 for boys
First recorded
1926
10-year trend
▲ +27%
Gender split
11% girls / 89% boys
Famous people named Kai
Kai Siegbahn
Swedish physicist (1918–2007)
Kai Havertz
German association football player (born 1999)
Kai Hansen
German guitarist and singer
Zou Kai
Chinese artistic gymnast
Notability data from Wikidata (CC0).
Names with a similar vibe
Same primary gender, peaked around the same years, and roughly as common as Kai.
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