Kanai

#3,212 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

Meaning not yet documented

Kanai has been given to 575 babies in the U.S. since 1999. In 2025 it ranked #3,212 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 37 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 71% boys, 29% girls all-time.

Babies named Kanai, 2025

1 in 89,600

Kanai over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Kanai over time

In 2025, Kanai went to 26% girls and 74% boys.

19992025

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

How common is Kanai?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 89,600
37 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 46,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,212
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
62,106 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kanai sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 62,106 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kanai. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kanais were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kanai was born before 2017 — so the typical Kanai is around 8 today.

Median birth year
2017
About 8 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
39.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
97.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
406
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 39.7% of all recorded uses (161).

Is Kanai rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+926
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+2,620
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,959
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.06×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (37)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,212
2025

Spellings of Kanai

Kanai is not the most common spelling — Kai is, with 28.8% against Kanai's 0.17%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Kanai is used

Across 1910–2025, Kanai was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 7,692 boys, against 1 in 7,976 across all states with data.

1313 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 7,692

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Kanai has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kanai by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,212
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 2,620
Best rank ever
#3,212
2025
Peak year
2025
37 that year
First recorded
1999
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
406
Count in 2025
37

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#8,093
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 2,580
Best rank ever
#6,833
2021
Peak year
2021
17 that year
First recorded
2006
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
169
Count in 2025
13

Names similar to Kanai

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Sibling names for Kanai

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Kanai