Kao
Kao was given to 8 boys in 2025, #9,300 among boys’ names; 719 Americans have been recorded with it since 1980 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kao by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kao?
#9,300 among boys’ names, 2025
Kao fell from #8,377 in 2015 to #9,300 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born held at 4.7 per million.
54 babies in 1981, the peak
Kao peaked in 1981, when 54 babies were given it (40 boys, #1,529 among boys’ names). The 8 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 8 | #9,300 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 5 | #13,189 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 5 | #13,070 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 10 | #7,920 | |
| 2018 | under 5 | 9 | #8,496 | |
| 2017 | under 5 | 8 | #9,278 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 5 | #13,208 | |
| 2015 | under 5 | 9 | #8,377 | |
| 2012 | under 5 | 7 | #10,253 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 6 | #11,560 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | under 5 | 6 | #11,661 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 5 | #13,021 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 5 | #12,294 | |
| 2000 | 6 | #13,999 | under 5 | |
| 1998 | 7 | #11,725 | 8 | #7,202 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,404 | 8 | #6,937 |
| 1996 | 5 | #14,553 | 10 | #5,766 |
| 1995 | 15 | #6,095 | 15 | #4,160 |
| 1994 | 15 | #6,142 | 18 | #3,675 |
| 1993 | 13 | #6,815 | 17 | #3,738 |
| 1992 | 13 | #6,827 | 32 | #2,330 |
| 1991 | 24 | #4,257 | 18 | #3,394 |
| 1990 | 17 | #5,388 | 19 | #3,235 |
| 1989 | 21 | #4,422 | 25 | #2,567 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,043 | 20 | #2,799 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,324 | 22 | #2,513 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,832 | 18 | #2,838 |
| 1985 | 13 | #5,494 | 14 | #3,301 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,710 | 22 | #2,327 |
| 1983 | 14 | #4,989 | 30 | #1,842 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,743 | 28 | #1,959 |
| 1981 | 14 | #5,079 | 40 | #1,529 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,052 | 23 | #2,245 |
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 Kao a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 719 Americans recorded as Kao, 34% are girls and 66% boys. In 2025 it went to 8 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 Kao: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kao, and how old are they?
An estimated 691 Americans named Kao and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 32 and 42. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,060 people named Kao (487 women and girls, 1,573 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 682 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.0 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).
Where are babies named Kao born?
The states with the most babies named Kao are California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, with 93% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Minnesota and Wisconsin are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 280 | not ranked | 2.9× |
| Minnesota | 32 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| Wisconsin | 26 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Oregon | 14 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Washington | 12 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Kao is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kao is most over-represented in California: since 1980 it was given 2.9 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 Kao 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 89,779 babies since 1880, Kao is the sixth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 4,584 babies (<1%), the seventh 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 Kao
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 Kao and names like it
- Compare Kao and KaiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sKao peaked in 1981.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kao since 1910.
- The top names of 1981The year the most babies were named Kao.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kao alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.