Cai
Cai is given to both girls and boys: 12 girls and 69 boys were given it in 2025 (#8,455 among girls’ names and #2,113 among boys’, #4,085 among all names counting both); 1,945 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,930 Americans named Cai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cai?
#2,113 among boys’ names, 2025
Cai fell from #1,816 in 2015 to #2,113 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 42.8 to 40.4 per million.
131 babies in 2022, the peak
Cai peaked in 2022, when 131 babies were given it (108 boys, #1,612 among boys’ names). The 81 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 62% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #8,455 | 69 | #2,113 |
| 2024 | 18 | #6,442 | 83 | #1,905 |
| 2023 | 25 | #5,152 | 86 | #1,852 |
| 2022 | 23 | #5,493 | 108 | #1,612 |
| 2021 | 24 | #5,259 | 87 | #1,803 |
| 2020 | 38 | #3,788 | 66 | #2,118 |
| 2019 | 28 | #4,790 | 66 | #2,151 |
| 2018 | 21 | #5,817 | 65 | #2,148 |
| 2017 | 25 | #5,209 | 68 | #2,052 |
| 2016 | 34 | #4,270 | 82 | #1,830 |
Every recorded year (35)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 25 | #5,320 | 82 | #1,816 |
| 2014 | 21 | #6,024 | 71 | #2,002 |
| 2013 | 21 | #6,054 | 55 | #2,304 |
| 2012 | 23 | #5,741 | 54 | #2,360 |
| 2011 | 27 | #5,089 | 39 | #2,953 |
| 2010 | 9 | #11,428 | 38 | #3,022 |
| 2009 | 16 | #7,743 | 41 | #2,903 |
| 2008 | 15 | #8,190 | 39 | #3,007 |
| 2007 | 10 | #10,962 | 29 | #3,607 |
| 2006 | 10 | #10,729 | 23 | #4,114 |
| 2005 | 12 | #8,993 | 29 | #3,392 |
| 2004 | 14 | #7,900 | 27 | #3,460 |
| 2003 | 8 | #11,492 | 25 | #3,541 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,373 | 20 | #4,055 |
| 2001 | 5 | #15,760 | 17 | #4,500 |
| 2000 | 7 | #11,997 | 16 | #4,603 |
| 1999 | under 5 | 6 | #8,842 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 8 | #6,930 | |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,137 | 7 | #7,380 |
| 1996 | 6 | #12,069 | 6 | #8,081 |
| 1995 | under 5 | 6 | #7,921 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 8 | #6,441 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 9 | #5,816 | |
| 1990 | under 5 | 10 | #5,030 | |
| 1989 | under 5 | 5 | #8,052 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Cai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,945 Americans recorded as Cai, 25% are girls and 75% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Cai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cai, and how old are they?
1,930 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,945 Americans ever recorded as Cai. The median Cai alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 2,320 people named Cai (1,091 women and girls, 1,229 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,321 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Cai rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 48 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 585 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,290 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Cai born?
The states with the most babies named Cai are Texas, Florida and Indiana, with 80% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Indiana is not among the ten states with the most births.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Cai with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 86,513 babies since 1880, Cai is the third most given (2.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 81 of their 4,355 babies (1.9%), again the third most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cai
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cai and names like it
- Compare Cai and KaiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCai peaked in 2022.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cai since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Cai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Cai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.