Kainoa
Kainoa was given to 95 boys in 2025, #1,716 among boys’ names; 2,696 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,650 Americans named Kainoa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 8 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kainoa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kainoa mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Kainoa is “a male or (formerly) female given name from Hawaiian” Its etymology gives the senses “the” (ka) and “name; namesake” (inoa).
From ka (“the”) + inoa (“name; namesake”). Later sometimes interpreted as kai (“sea”) + noa (“free of taboo”).
/kai̯ˈno.a/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kainoa?
#1,716 among boys’ names, 2025
Kainoa fell from #1,697 in 2015 to #1,716 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 48.0 to 55.6 per million.
105 babies in 2016, the peak
Kainoa peaked in 2016, when 105 boys were given it, #1,568 among boys’ names. The 95 births of 2025 are 90% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 95 | #1,716 | 55.6 |
| 2024 | 99 | #1,692 | 57.5 |
| 2023 | 101 | #1,687 | 59.0 |
| 2022 | 75 | #2,030 | 43.0 |
| 2021 | 82 | #1,878 | 46.9 |
| 2020 | 80 | #1,858 | 46.3 |
| 2019 | 93 | #1,705 | 51.8 |
| 2018 | 86 | #1,784 | 47.4 |
| 2017 | 92 | #1,711 | 49.7 |
| 2016 | 105 | #1,568 | 55.3 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 92 | #1,697 | 48.0 |
| 2014 | 88 | #1,721 | 45.8 |
| 2013 | 84 | #1,743 | 44.4 |
| 2012 | 84 | #1,777 | 44.3 |
| 2011 | 77 | #1,841 | 40.5 |
| 2010 | 76 | #1,891 | 39.6 |
| 2009 | 74 | #1,931 | 37.3 |
| 2008 | 84 | #1,782 | 41.2 |
| 2007 | 76 | #1,884 | 36.6 |
| 2006 | 80 | #1,749 | 38.9 |
| 2005 | 90 | #1,561 | 45.1 |
| 2004 | 79 | #1,637 | 39.8 |
| 2003 | 81 | #1,570 | 41.0 |
| 2002 | 67 | #1,728 | 34.5 |
| 2001 | 55 | #1,966 | 28.3 |
| 2000 | 62 | #1,768 | 31.6 |
| 1999 | 50 | #1,945 | 26.0 |
| 1998 | 41 | #2,218 | 21.5 |
| 1997 | 27 | #2,860 | 14.3 |
| 1996 | 47 | #1,918 | 24.8 |
| 1995 | 34 | #2,317 | 17.9 |
| 1994 | 40 | #2,057 | 20.7 |
| 1993 | 29 | #2,539 | 14.8 |
| 1992 | 30 | #2,433 | 15.0 |
| 1991 | 36 | #2,070 | 17.8 |
| 1990 | 13 | #4,277 | 6.3 |
| 1989 | 15 | #3,718 | 7.5 |
| 1988 | 19 | #2,905 | 9.9 |
| 1987 | 14 | #3,425 | 7.5 |
| 1986 | 13 | #3,542 | 7.1 |
| 1985 | 6 | #6,154 | 3.2 |
| 1984 | 15 | #3,030 | 8.3 |
| 1983 | 13 | #3,322 | 7.3 |
| 1981 | 12 | #3,507 | 6.7 |
| 1980 | 11 | #3,733 | 6.2 |
| 1979 | 9 | #4,229 | 5.2 |
| 1978 | 9 | #4,002 | 5.5 |
| 1977 | 10 | #3,724 | 6.1 |
| 1975 | 6 | #5,119 | 3.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kainoa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,696 Americans recorded as Kainoa, 1% are girls and 99% boys. In 2025 it went to 95 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kainoa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kainoa, and how old are they?
2,650 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,696 Americans ever recorded as Kainoa. The median Kainoa alive today is 15 years old; half are between 8 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 1,999 people named Kainoa (106 women and girls, 1,893 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,141 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 47 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 337 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,090 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,180 |
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 Kainoa born?
The states with the most babies named Kainoa are California, Hawaii and Washington, with 79% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Hawaii and Washington are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 21 | #1,027 | 1.9× |
| Hawaii | 14 | #59 | 80.0× |
| Washington | 13 | #548 | 2.7× |
| Nevada | 7 | #419 | 1.5× |
| Oregon | 6 | #560 | 1.2× |
Where Kainoa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kainoa is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1975 it was given 80.0 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 Kainoa 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 7,579 babies since 1880, Kainoa is the second most given (36% of them). In 2025 it was given to 95 of their 269 babies (35%), again the second 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 Kainoa
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 Kainoa and names like it
- Compare Kainoa and KaineBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKainoa peaked in 2016.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kainoa since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kainoa: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Kainoa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kainoa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.