Kanai
Kanai is given to both girls and boys: 13 girls and 37 boys were given it in 2025 (#8,093 among girls’ names and #3,212 among boys’, #5,636 among all names counting both); 575 Americans have been recorded with it since 1999 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kanai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kanai?
#3,212 among boys’ names, 2025
Kanai rose from #5,171 in 2015 to #3,212 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 9.4 to 21.7 per million.
50 babies in 2025, the peak
Kanai peaked in 2025, when 50 babies were given it (37 boys, #3,212 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 26 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #8,093 | 37 | #3,212 |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,619 | 26 | #4,138 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,723 | 30 | #3,760 |
| 2022 | 14 | #7,825 | 29 | #3,820 |
| 2021 | 17 | #6,833 | 24 | #4,306 |
| 2020 | 9 | #10,673 | 15 | #5,832 |
| 2019 | 5 | #16,733 | 20 | #4,885 |
| 2018 | under 5 | 17 | #5,421 | |
| 2017 | 11 | #9,615 | 15 | #5,935 |
| 2016 | 8 | #12,294 | 13 | #6,523 |
Every recorded year (25)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 6 | #15,419 | 18 | #5,171 |
| 2014 | 7 | #13,778 | 18 | #5,159 |
| 2013 | 9 | #11,439 | 14 | #6,073 |
| 2012 | 8 | #12,777 | 23 | #4,319 |
| 2011 | 7 | #14,032 | 13 | #6,411 |
| 2010 | 9 | #11,730 | 6 | #11,470 |
| 2009 | 10 | #11,062 | 13 | #6,627 |
| 2008 | 9 | #12,080 | 14 | #6,253 |
| 2007 | 5 | #18,986 | 10 | #7,883 |
| 2006 | 5 | #18,563 | 12 | #6,678 |
| 2005 | under 5 | 11 | #6,870 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 9 | #7,870 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 9 | #7,210 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 5 | #11,294 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 5 | #10,762 |
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 Kanai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 575 Americans recorded as Kanai, 29% are girls and 71% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kanai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kanai, and how old are they?
An estimated 570 Americans named Kanai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 15. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 355 people named Kanai (114 women and girls, 241 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 348 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% above that prediction.
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 7 names spelled alike, given to 23,788 babies since 1880, Kanai is the fifth most given (2.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 50 of their 816 babies (6.1%), 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 Kanai
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 Kanai and names like it
- Compare Kanai and KaneBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKanai peaked in 2025.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kanai since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Kanai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kanai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.