Keanu
Keanu was given to 427 boys in 2025, #649 among boys’ names; 8,920 Americans have been recorded with it since 1990 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,800 Americans named Keanu and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 5 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Keanu by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Keanu mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Keanu is “a male given name from Hawaiian.”
Borrowed from Hawaiian Keanu.
/kiˈɑnu/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Keanu?
#649 among boys’ names, 2025
Keanu rose from #1,026 in 2015 to #649 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.10 to 0.25 per 1,000.
562 babies in 2020, the peak
Keanu peaked in 2020, when 562 babies were given it (557 boys, #515 among boys’ names). The 427 births of 2025 are 76% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 427 | #649 | 0.25 |
| 2024 | 442 | #632 | 0.26 |
| 2023 | 551 | #538 | 0.32 |
| 2022 | 484 | #591 | 0.28 |
| 2021 | 553 | #532 | 0.32 |
| 2020 | 557 | #515 | 0.32 |
| 2019 | 429 | #630 | 0.24 |
| 2018 | 283 | #800 | 0.16 |
| 2017 | 242 | #891 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 211 | #975 | 0.11 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 198 | #1,026 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 142 | #1,260 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 110 | #1,487 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 151 | #1,193 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 163 | #1,123 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 162 | #1,146 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 164 | #1,127 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 165 | #1,114 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 165 | #1,112 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 177 | #1,035 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 179 | #974 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 202 | #868 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 208 | #838 | 0.11 |
| 2002 | 212 | #806 | 0.11 |
| 2001 | 269 | #677 | 0.14 |
| 2000 | 216 | #769 | 0.11 |
| 1999 | 180 | #838 | 0.09 |
| 1998 | 142 | #971 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 194 | #768 | 0.10 |
| 1996 | 280 | #620 | 0.15 |
| 1995 | 356 | #537 | 0.19 |
| 1994 | 195 | #754 | 0.10 |
| 1993 | 102 | #1,106 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 105 | #1,068 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 71 | #1,338 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 8 | #6,131 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Keanu a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,920 Americans recorded as Keanu, 3% are girls and 97% boys. In 2025 it went to 427 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 Keanu: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Keanu, and how old are they?
8,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,920 Americans ever recorded as Keanu. The median Keanu alive today is 12 years old; half are between 5 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 5,104 people named Keanu (199 women and girls, 4,905 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,961 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,180 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,990 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,620 |
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 Keanu born?
The states with the most babies named Keanu are California, Texas and Florida, with 44% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 78 | #419 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 59 | #548 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 37 | #495 | 1.2× |
| New York | 15 | #899 | 1.0× |
| Washington | 15 | #488 | 1.2× |
| Nevada | 12 | #254 | 1.8× |
| Hawaii | 10 | #101 | 20.3× |
| Illinois | 10 | #839 | 0.4× |
| Minnesota | 10 | #534 | 0.5× |
| Arizona | 9 | #701 | 1.5× |
Where Keanu is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Keanu is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1990 it was given 20.3 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 Keanu 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 68,497 babies since 1880, Keanu is the second most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 427 of their 715 babies (60%), the 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 Keanu
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 Keanu and names like it
- Compare Keanu and KennyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKeanu peaked in 2020.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keanu since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Keanu: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Keanu.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Keanu alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.