Pualani

Girls' name

Flower + sky

Pualani has been given to 127 babies in the U.S. since 1939. 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 1978, with 9 recorded.

Babies named Pualani, 2024

1 in 669,000

Pualani over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Pualani: meaning, origin, and history

Flower + sky

Hawaiian

What Pualani means

Pualani means “flower + sky”, associated with pua and lani.

Origin, language, and formation

Pualani is used in Hawaiian. Its origins include Hawaiian.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Hawaiian, Pualani is pronounced /pu.aˈla.ni/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 127 girls were recorded with the name Pualani between 1939 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 9 in 1978; its best national rank was #4,794 in 1939.

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 Pualani?

Pualani 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 669,000; 5 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only: 1 in 324,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 463,412 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Pualani 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 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 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Pualani. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Pualanis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Pualani was born before 1995 — so the typical Pualani is around 30 today.

Median birth year: 1995; About 30 years old
Biggest decade: 1970s; 22.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 37.0%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 122; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1970s — 22.0% of all recorded uses (28).

Is Pualani 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 1978 (9)
Years since peak: 47; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 30.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #4,794; 1939

Spellings of Pualani

Pualani is not the most common spelling — Alani is, with 36.4% against Pualani's 0.25%.

Alani36.4%18,799
Kalani19.9%10,278
Nalani15.4%7,954
Malani13.8%7,112
Khalani5.2%2,671
Jalani3.2%1,676
Aulani2.2%1,117
Dalani1.3%681

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 Pualani is used

Across 1910–2025, Pualani was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 10,000 girls, against 1 in 10,497 across all states with data.

1010 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Hawaii1 in 10,000

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

Pualani by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #4,794; 1939
Peak year: 1978; 9 that year
First recorded: 1939
Last recorded: 2024
All-time count: 127
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Pualani

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

Puanani Pualena Kaimani Millani Raelani Niamani Daelani Deilani Cahlani Nehlani Xiadani Taylani Healani Cailani Jeylani Gurbani Yeilani Lealani Nahlani Dehlani Khylani Nialani Keymani Juliani

Sibling names for Pualani

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

Shanta Cory Imelda Lakesha Cristy Aja Jason Bambi

For a brother

Delvin Cedrick Torrey Jed Kristofer Tory Aric Rodrick

Explore around Pualani

Top names of 1978, Pualani's peak year The 1970s in full Other names that peaked in 1939 Girls' names starting with P