Kailani
Kailani was given to 1,215 girls in 2025, #253 among girls’ names; 12,823 Americans have been recorded with it since 1980 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,700 Americans named Kailani 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 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kailani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kailani mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kailani is “a female given name from Hawaiian.” Its etymology gives the senses “sea” (kai) and “sky” (lani).
From Hawaiian Kailani, from kai (“sea”) + lani (“sky”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kailani?
#253 among girls’ names, 2025
Kailani rose from #878 in 2015 to #253 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.18 to 0.76 per 1,000.
1,358 babies in 2022, the peak
Kailani peaked in 2022, when 1,358 babies were given it (1,350 girls, #222 among girls’ names). The 1,215 births of 2025 are 89% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,215 | #253 | 0.76 |
| 2024 | 1,144 | #276 | 0.71 |
| 2023 | 1,320 | #226 | 0.82 |
| 2022 | 1,350 | #222 | 0.82 |
| 2021 | 1,139 | #278 | 0.69 |
| 2020 | 1,133 | #282 | 0.70 |
| 2019 | 903 | #350 | 0.54 |
| 2018 | 795 | #390 | 0.47 |
| 2017 | 486 | #617 | 0.28 |
| 2016 | 379 | #753 | 0.21 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 317 | #878 | 0.18 |
| 2014 | 271 | #985 | 0.15 |
| 2013 | 261 | #966 | 0.15 |
| 2012 | 250 | #1,013 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 218 | #1,123 | 0.12 |
| 2010 | 187 | #1,276 | 0.11 |
| 2009 | 165 | #1,421 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 179 | #1,357 | 0.09 |
| 2007 | 152 | #1,520 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 144 | #1,524 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 123 | #1,634 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 128 | #1,550 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 86 | #2,074 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 64 | #2,477 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 53 | #2,787 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 53 | #2,752 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 32 | #3,745 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 38 | #3,254 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 16 | #6,010 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 19 | #5,157 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 21 | #4,752 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 22 | #4,599 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 17 | #5,526 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 14 | #6,451 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,392 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,551 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 10 | #7,691 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 11 | #6,843 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 9 | #7,646 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,862 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 5 | #11,153 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,000 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,230 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,720 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kailani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kailani has been given almost only to girls: 45 boys in 44 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kailani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kailani, and how old are they?
12,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 12,823 Americans ever recorded as Kailani. The median Kailani alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 4,469 people named Kailani (4,406 women and girls, 63 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,748 born in the U.S. The Census count is 22% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 8 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 165 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,880 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,700 |
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 Kailani born?
The states with the most babies named Kailani are Texas, California and Florida, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 193 | #170 | 1.1× |
| California | 153 | #216 | 1.5× |
| Florida | 100 | #177 | 1.3× |
| New York | 50 | #339 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 45 | #242 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 44 | #241 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 35 | #230 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 31 | #363 | 0.4× |
| Virginia | 30 | #279 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 28 | #367 | 0.8× |
Where Kailani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kailani is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1980 it was given 6.4 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 Kailani 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, Kailani is the most given (28% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,215 of their 4,976 babies (24%), the second most given that year.
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 Kailani
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 Kailani and names like it
- Compare Kailani and KalaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKailani peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kailani since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kailani: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Kailani.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kailani alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.