Kaelani
Kaelani was given to 110 girls in 2025, #1,824 among girls’ names; 1,315 Americans have been recorded with it since 1988 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,310 Americans named Kaelani and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 12.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kaelani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kaelani mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kaelani is “a female given name from Hawaiian.” Its etymology gives the senses “edge” (kaʻe) and “sky” (lani).
From Hawaiian kaʻe (“edge”) + lani (“sky”), or a modern variant of Kailani.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kaelani?
#1,824 among girls’ names, 2025
Kaelani rose from #3,559 in 2015 to #1,824 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 24.6 to 68.4 per million.
132 babies in 2023, the peak
Kaelani peaked in 2023, when 132 girls were given it, #1,590 among girls’ names. The 110 births of 2025 are 83% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 110 | #1,824 | 68.4 |
| 2024 | 113 | #1,784 | 69.7 |
| 2023 | 132 | #1,590 | 82.3 |
| 2022 | 109 | #1,860 | 66.5 |
| 2021 | 86 | #2,178 | 52.4 |
| 2020 | 111 | #1,786 | 68.7 |
| 2019 | 92 | #2,061 | 54.8 |
| 2018 | 61 | #2,798 | 35.9 |
| 2017 | 59 | #2,853 | 34.2 |
| 2016 | 62 | #2,781 | 35.0 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 44 | #3,559 | 24.6 |
| 2014 | 26 | #5,221 | 14.6 |
| 2013 | 32 | #4,480 | 18.2 |
| 2012 | 29 | #4,895 | 16.5 |
| 2011 | 32 | #4,505 | 18.2 |
| 2010 | 20 | #6,492 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 19 | #6,927 | 10.3 |
| 2008 | 23 | #6,026 | 12.2 |
| 2007 | 25 | #5,603 | 13.0 |
| 2006 | 10 | #10,988 | 5.3 |
| 2005 | 13 | #8,570 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 19 | #6,344 | 10.3 |
| 2003 | 8 | #11,823 | 4.4 |
| 2002 | 13 | #8,033 | 7.2 |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,703 | 5.6 |
| 2000 | 15 | #6,969 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 9 | #9,861 | 5.1 |
| 1998 | 8 | #10,564 | 4.5 |
| 1996 | 8 | #9,989 | 4.6 |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,505 | 3.4 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,468 | 3.3 |
| 1988 | 5 | #12,682 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kaelani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kaelani has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kaelani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kaelani, and how old are they?
1,310 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,315 Americans ever recorded as Kaelani. The median Kaelani alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 12.
The 2020 Census counted 547 people named Kaelani (539 women and girls, 8 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 677 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 24 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 251 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,030 |
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 Kaelani born?
The states with the most babies named Kaelani are California, Florida and Texas, with 62% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 12 | #1,796 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,488 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 7 | #2,768 | 0.6× |
| Indiana | 7 | #863 | 0.2× |
| Georgia | 5 | #1,655 | 0.3× |
| Kentucky | 5 | #796 | 0.2× |
Where Kaelani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kaelani is most over-represented in California: since 1988 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ 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 Kaelani 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 46,115 babies since 1880, Kaelani is the seventh most given (2.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 110 of their 4,976 babies (2.2%), again the seventh 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 Kaelani
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 Kaelani and names like it
- Compare Kaelani and KailaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKaelani peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kaelani since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kaelani: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Kaelani.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kaelani alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.