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Kehlani

#149 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Kailani

Kehlani has been given to 14,532 babies in the U.S. since 2015. In 2025 it ranked #149 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 1,981 recorded.

Babies named Kehlani, 2025

1 in 1,670

Kehlani over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
05001K1.5K2K18801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kehlani: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Kailani

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Kehlani means

Kehlani is a variant of Kailani.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Kehlani → Kailani. The family’s meaning is “sea + sky”, recorded in Hawaiian with the source elements kai and lani.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Kailani.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 14,481 girls were recorded with the name Kehlani between 2015 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 1,981 in 2025; its best national rank was #149 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #168 in 2020 to #149 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #3,279 in 2015 to #149 in 2025.

In the United States, 51 boys were recorded with the name Kehlani between 2016 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 10 in 2019; its best national rank was #7,934 in 2019.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #9,151 in 2020 to #12,992 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Kehlani?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 1,670
1,981 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 811
0.12% of girls
Rank, 2025
#149
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
1,161 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kehlani sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 201%
Class of 302%
Grade of 1006%
School of 50026%

Put another way: gather 1,161 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kehlani. In a class of 30 the chance is 2%.

When Kehlanis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kehlani was born before 2022 — so the typical Kehlani is around 3 today.

Median birth year
2022
About 3 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
77.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
14,481
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 77.9% of all recorded uses (11,283).

Is Kehlani 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
+1
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+19
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+3,130
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
39.62×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (1,981)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
77.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#149
2025

Spellings of Kehlani

Kehlani is not the most common spelling — Leilani is, with 38.0% against Kehlani's 9.7%.

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 Kehlani is used

Across 2016–2025, Kehlani was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 351 girls, against 1 in 945 across all states with data. It was least common in Alaska (1 in 3,226).

31285 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 351
  2. 2Delaware1 in 441
  3. 3South Carolina1 in 498
  4. 4Louisiana1 in 500
  5. 5Alabama1 in 541
  6. 6New Mexico1 in 552
  7. 7Hawaii1 in 559
  8. 8Georgia1 in 562

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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.

Geographically, Kehlani is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 41% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Kehlani around the world

Where Kehlani ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2016–2025
    #894
    in 2025
  • France
    2017–2025
    #1,743
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2017–2024
    #670
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Kehlani

People whose public names include Kehlani, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Kehlani by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#149
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 19
Best rank ever
#149
2025
Peak year
2025
1,981 that year
First recorded
2015
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
14,481
Count in 2025
1,981

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#12,992
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,841
Best rank ever
#7,934
2019
Peak year
2019
10 that year
First recorded
2016
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
51
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Kehlani

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

TiffaniKailaniKaylaniStefaniArmaniMilaniKeilaniKalaniMeilaniJaylaniNalaniAilaniLeilaniNoelaniMalaniLaylaniKehaulaniAmaniShivaniMelaniKhalaniLailaniLeylaniAlani

Names with a curve like Kehlani

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Kehlani, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AlaiaOakleySuttonOaklynnAitanaPalmerWrenLennonEverleighCollinsJuniperDream

Sibling names for Kehlani

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 Kehlani

Top names of 2025, Kehlani's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2025Girls' names starting with K