Kalai
Kalai is given to both girls and boys: 5 girls and 19 boys were given it in 2025 (#16,036 among girls’ names and #5,117 among boys’, #9,219 among all names counting both); 318 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 Kalai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kalai mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Kalai is “a female given name originating from the Bible” Its etymology gives the sense “Sarai” (Sarai).
Spoken form of the biblical Sarai (“Sarai”).
/kaˈlai̯/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kalai?
#5,117 among boys’ names, 2025
Kalai rose from #10,071 in 2015 to #5,117 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 3.7 to 11.1 per million.
24 babies in 2025, the peak
Kalai peaked in 2025, when 24 babies were given it (19 boys, #5,117 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 9 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,036 | 19 | #5,117 |
| 2024 | under 5 | 9 | #8,655 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 5 | #13,176 | |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,688 | 10 | #8,031 |
| 2021 | 5 | #16,394 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | 9 | #10,662 | 13 | #6,462 |
| 2019 | 10 | #10,092 | 9 | #8,517 |
| 2018 | under 5 | 12 | #6,914 | |
| 2017 | under 5 | 9 | #8,491 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 9 | #8,474 |
Every recorded year (28)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 6 | #15,395 | 7 | #10,071 |
| 2014 | under 5 | 9 | #8,461 | |
| 2012 | under 5 | 11 | #7,286 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 12 | #6,798 | |
| 2010 | under 5 | 6 | #11,459 | |
| 2009 | 7 | #14,407 | 8 | #9,428 |
| 2008 | under 5 | 10 | #7,992 | |
| 2007 | under 5 | 10 | #7,879 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 9 | #8,380 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 6 | #10,769 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 12 | #6,328 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 11 | #6,490 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 10 | #6,792 | |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,372 | 10 | #6,703 |
| 2000 | 5 | #16,209 | 14 | #5,177 |
| 1998 | under 5 | 6 | #9,043 | |
| 1996 | 6 | #12,554 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 5 | #14,162 | under 5 |
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 Kalai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 318 Americans recorded as Kalai, 23% are girls and 77% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kalai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kalai, and how old are they?
An estimated 314 Americans named Kalai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 22. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 450 people named Kalai (222 women and girls, 228 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 238 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.9 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 11,899 babies since 1880, Kalai is the fourth most given (2.7% of them). In 2025 it was given to 24 of their 408 babies (5.9%), the third 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 Kalai
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 Kalai and names like it
- Compare Kalai and KaleBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKalai peaked in 2025.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kalai since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Kalai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kalai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.