Kalani
Kalani was given to 800 girls in 2025, #387 among girls’ names; 12,515 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,400 Americans named Kalani and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kalani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kalani mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kalani is “a unisex given name from Hawaiian.”
Borrowed from Hawaiian Kalani.
/kəˈlɑːni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kalani?
#387 among girls’ names, 2025
Kalani rose from #839 in 2015 to #387 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.19 to 0.50 per 1,000.
1,003 babies in 2021, the peak
Kalani peaked in 2021, when 1,003 babies were given it (959 girls, #339 among girls’ names). The 821 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 82% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 800 | #387 | 21 | #4,791 |
| 2024 | 921 | #339 | 36 | #3,303 |
| 2023 | 814 | #380 | 33 | #3,509 |
| 2022 | 843 | #375 | 37 | #3,246 |
| 2021 | 959 | #339 | 44 | #2,839 |
| 2020 | 784 | #397 | 43 | #2,818 |
| 2019 | 668 | #469 | 38 | #3,124 |
| 2018 | 527 | #585 | 43 | #2,821 |
| 2017 | 568 | #545 | 57 | #2,299 |
| 2016 | 433 | #678 | 77 | #1,910 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 334 | #839 | 57 | #2,313 |
| 2014 | 239 | #1,072 | 63 | #2,163 |
| 2013 | 170 | #1,375 | 78 | #1,837 |
| 2012 | 180 | #1,308 | 79 | #1,852 |
| 2011 | 158 | #1,436 | 75 | #1,879 |
| 2010 | 126 | #1,683 | 69 | #1,990 |
| 2009 | 166 | #1,415 | 86 | #1,765 |
| 2008 | 108 | #1,954 | 67 | #2,077 |
| 2007 | 120 | #1,788 | 69 | #2,025 |
| 2006 | 134 | #1,603 | 81 | #1,731 |
| 2005 | 113 | #1,749 | 65 | #1,950 |
| 2004 | 143 | #1,437 | 66 | #1,862 |
| 2003 | 107 | #1,763 | 61 | #1,916 |
| 2002 | 92 | #1,924 | 65 | #1,775 |
| 2001 | 81 | #2,065 | 58 | #1,898 |
| 2000 | 68 | #2,289 | 52 | #1,978 |
| 1999 | 65 | #2,290 | 48 | #2,003 |
| 1998 | 44 | #2,942 | 39 | #2,291 |
| 1997 | 49 | #2,602 | 25 | #3,022 |
| 1996 | 38 | #3,108 | 28 | #2,711 |
| 1995 | 43 | #2,808 | 27 | #2,720 |
| 1994 | 35 | #3,260 | 32 | #2,420 |
| 1993 | 28 | #3,820 | 30 | #2,476 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,137 | 27 | #2,630 |
| 1991 | 18 | #5,270 | 24 | #2,779 |
| 1990 | 29 | #3,659 | 27 | #2,521 |
| 1989 | 23 | #4,169 | 34 | #2,080 |
| 1988 | 30 | #3,254 | 19 | #2,906 |
| 1987 | 16 | #4,943 | 21 | #2,596 |
| 1986 | 17 | #4,616 | 23 | #2,391 |
| 1985 | 14 | #5,178 | 24 | #2,260 |
| 1984 | 11 | #6,069 | 20 | #2,486 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,608 | 12 | #3,526 |
| 1982 | 12 | #5,698 | 17 | #2,768 |
| 1981 | 17 | #4,412 | 19 | #2,537 |
| 1980 | 15 | #4,829 | 22 | #2,323 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,402 | 14 | #3,081 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,251 | 19 | #2,429 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,765 | 27 | #1,878 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,276 | 20 | #2,289 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,502 | 23 | #2,033 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,351 | 16 | #2,509 |
| 1973 | under 5 | 13 | #2,786 | |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,669 | 8 | #3,793 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,913 | 13 | #2,745 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,580 | under 5 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 8 | #3,448 | |
| 1967 | under 5 | 9 | #2,871 | |
| 1966 | under 5 | 5 | #4,241 | |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,230 | under 5 | |
| 1963 | 11 | #4,125 | 9 | #2,955 |
| 1961 | under 5 | 5 | #4,360 | |
| 1960 | under 5 | 5 | #4,328 | |
| 1959 | under 5 | 5 | #4,280 |
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 Kalani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 12,515 Americans recorded as Kalani, 82% are girls and 18% boys. In 2025 it went to 800 girls and 21 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kalani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kalani, and how old are they?
12,400 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 12,515 Americans ever recorded as Kalani. The median Kalani alive today is 8 years old; half are between 4 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 6,198 people named Kalani (4,359 women and girls, 1,839 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,298 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 32 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 259 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 718 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,730 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,640 |
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 Kalani born?
The states with the most babies named Kalani are Texas, Florida and Georgia, with 27% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 85 | #393 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 68 | #279 | 1.4× |
| Georgia | 54 | #196 | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 50 | #218 | 1.2× |
| California | 47 | #669 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 42 | #250 | 0.6× |
| Louisiana | 38 | #102 | 1.3× |
| New York | 29 | #576 | 0.6× |
| Tennessee | 29 | #269 | 0.7× |
| Alabama | 28 | #159 | 1.1× |
Where Kalani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kalani is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1959 it was given 10.0 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 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 Kalani 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 51,002 babies since 1880, Kalani is the second most given (25% of them). In 2025 it was given to 821 of their 5,006 babies (16%), 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 Kalani
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 Kalani and names like it
- Compare Kalani and KailaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKalani peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kalani since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kalani: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Kalani.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kalani alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.