Kimo

Boys' name

Supplanter, heel-grabber, through Jim

Kimo has been given to 859 babies in the U.S. since 1949. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1981, with 28 recorded.

Babies named Kimo, 2024

1 in 418,000

Kimo over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kimo: meaning, origin, and history

Supplanter, heel-grabber, through Jim

English

What Kimo means

Kimo belongs to the name family reached through Kimo → Jim → James → James → Iacomus. Its meaning is “supplanter, heel-grabber”.

Origin, language, and formation

Kimo is used in Hawaiian. Its origins include English.

Kimo comes through English Jim.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Jim, James and Iacomus.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Hawaiian, Kimo is pronounced /ˈki.mo/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 859 boys were recorded with the name Kimo between 1949 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 28 in 1981; its best national rank was #1,948 in 1972.

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 Kimo?

Kimo had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024: 1 in 418,000; 8 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only: 1 in 215,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 289,633 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Kimo 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 2024 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 289,633 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kimo. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kimos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kimo was born before 1985 — so the typical Kimo is around 40 today.

Median birth year: 1985; About 40 years old
Biggest decade: 1980s; 20.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 27.9%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 851; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1980s — 20.6% of all recorded uses (177).

Is Kimo 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: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1981 (28)
Years since peak: 44; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 57.4% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,948; 1972

Spellings of Kimo

Kimo is not the most common spelling — Jim is, with 22.3% against Kimo's 0.13%.

Jim22.3%153,122
Tim12.1%83,358
Simon10.2%70,283
Kirk9.9%68,067
Milo6.4%43,847
King5.5%37,850
Kim5.1%34,951
Nico3.1%21,294

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 Kimo is used

Across 1910–2025, Kimo was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 2,041 boys, against 1 in 47,870 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in 100,000).

149 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Hawaii1 in 2,041
2California1 in 100,000

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. Kimo has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kimo around the world

Where Kimo 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.

France
2000–2013
#6,792
in 2013

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Kimo by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,948; 1972
Peak year: 1981; 28 that year
First recorded: 1949
Last recorded: 2024
All-time count: 859
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Kimo

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

Kimi Primo Kimber Kimani Kimari Kimoni Timo Cosimo Kimball Kimble Kimmy Kimm Kimon Kim Kimmie Kimar Massimo Onesimo Maximo Jeronimo Kimsey Kimothy Kimbal Geronimo

Sibling names for Kimo

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

For a sister

Shamika Fawn Joi Jessi Jenelle Charissa Latrice Sharonda

For a brother

Chauncey Leopoldo Jerod Dusty Jamaal Wilfredo Antwan Donnell

Explore around Kimo

Top names of 1981, Kimo's peak year The 1980s in full Other names that peaked in 1972 Boys' names starting with K Hawaiian Boy Names Hawaiian Names