Kainalu
Kainalu was given to 15 boys in 2025, #5,994 among boys’ names; 667 Americans have been recorded with it since 1991 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kainalu by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kainalu mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Kainalu is “a male given name from Hawaiian” Its etymology gives the senses “sea” (kai) and “wave” (nalu) and “billowy sea” (=).
kai (“sea”) + nalu (“wave”) = “billowy sea”.
/kai̯ˈna.lu/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kainalu?
#5,994 among boys’ names, 2025
Kainalu fell from #5,169 in 2015 to #5,994 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 9.4 to 8.8 per million.
32 babies in 2003, the peak
Kainalu peaked in 2003, when 32 boys were given it, #3,018 among boys’ names. The 15 births of 2025 are 47% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 15 | #5,994 | 8.8 |
| 2024 | 20 | #4,968 | 11.6 |
| 2023 | 19 | #5,156 | 11.1 |
| 2022 | 18 | #5,314 | 10.3 |
| 2021 | 18 | #5,228 | 10.3 |
| 2020 | 20 | #4,779 | 11.6 |
| 2019 | 15 | #5,954 | 8.4 |
| 2018 | 18 | #5,199 | 9.9 |
| 2017 | 23 | #4,392 | 12.4 |
| 2016 | 16 | #5,669 | 8.4 |
Every recorded year (35)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 | #5,169 | 9.4 |
| 2014 | 18 | #5,157 | 9.4 |
| 2013 | 15 | #5,790 | 7.9 |
| 2012 | 14 | #6,139 | 7.4 |
| 2011 | 22 | #4,432 | 11.6 |
| 2010 | 15 | #5,883 | 7.8 |
| 2009 | 23 | #4,361 | 11.6 |
| 2008 | 31 | #3,524 | 15.2 |
| 2007 | 25 | #4,066 | 12.0 |
| 2006 | 29 | #3,561 | 14.1 |
| 2005 | 27 | #3,570 | 13.5 |
| 2004 | 25 | #3,693 | 12.6 |
| 2003 | 32 | #3,018 | 16.2 |
| 2002 | 28 | #3,223 | 14.4 |
| 2001 | 19 | #4,205 | 9.8 |
| 2000 | 19 | #4,131 | 9.7 |
| 1999 | 15 | #4,645 | 7.8 |
| 1998 | 15 | #4,520 | 7.8 |
| 1997 | 24 | #3,106 | 12.7 |
| 1996 | 17 | #3,917 | 9.0 |
| 1995 | 16 | #3,955 | 8.4 |
| 1994 | 10 | #5,663 | 5.2 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,853 | 6.1 |
| 1992 | 10 | #5,433 | 5.0 |
| 1991 | 6 | #7,738 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kainalu a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kainalu has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 35 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kainalu: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kainalu, and how old are they?
An estimated 657 Americans named Kainalu and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 9 and 24. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 485 people named Kainalu (1 woman or girl, 484 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 555 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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.
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 Kainalu born?
The states with the most babies named Kainalu are Hawaii, California and Utah, with 100% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Hawaii and Utah are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | 458 | not ranked | 174.1× |
| California | 6 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Utah | 5 | not ranked | 0.5× |
Where Kainalu is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kainalu is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1991 it was given 174.1 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 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 Kainalu with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kainalu
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 Kainalu and names like it
- Compare Kainalu and HumzaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKainalu peaked in 2003.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kainalu since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kainalu: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2003The year the most babies were named Kainalu.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kainalu alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.