Koa
Koa was given to 1,281 boys in 2025, #269 among boys’ names; 8,548 Americans have been recorded with it since 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,480 Americans named Koa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 4 years old and half are between 2 and 7.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Koa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Koa mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Koa is “a male given name from Hawaiian” Its etymology gives the sense “warrior, courage; koa tree” (koa).
koa (“warrior, courage; koa tree”). Also a short form of compound names containing the element koa.
/ˈko.a/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Koa?
#269 among boys’ names, 2025
Koa rose from #1,158 in 2015 to #269 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.08 to 0.75 per 1,000.
1,413 babies in 2025, the peak
Koa peaked in 2025, when 1,413 babies were given it (1,281 boys, #269 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,152 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,281 | #269 | 0.75 |
| 2024 | 1,152 | #292 | 0.67 |
| 2023 | 1,119 | #298 | 0.65 |
| 2022 | 941 | #350 | 0.54 |
| 2021 | 536 | #546 | 0.31 |
| 2020 | 477 | #582 | 0.28 |
| 2019 | 326 | #741 | 0.18 |
| 2018 | 278 | #811 | 0.15 |
| 2017 | 223 | #938 | 0.12 |
| 2016 | 153 | #1,227 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 162 | #1,158 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 112 | #1,461 | 0.06 |
| 2013 | 113 | #1,463 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 118 | #1,413 | 0.06 |
| 2011 | 88 | #1,697 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 75 | #1,906 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 81 | #1,835 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 77 | #1,889 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 56 | #2,324 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 41 | #2,810 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 42 | #2,636 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 39 | #2,721 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 29 | #3,237 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 33 | #2,852 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 17 | #4,591 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 17 | #4,484 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 22 | #3,532 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 10 | #6,093 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 12 | #5,128 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 17 | #3,932 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 13 | #4,666 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 7 | #7,400 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 8 | #6,567 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 7 | #7,078 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 6 | #5,905 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,248 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 7 | #4,809 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Koa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,548 Americans recorded as Koa, 10% are girls and 90% boys. In 2025 it went to 132 girls and 1,281 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Koa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Koa, and how old are they?
8,480 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,548 Americans ever recorded as Koa. The median Koa alive today is 4 years old; half are between 2 and 7.
The 2020 Census counted 2,495 people named Koa (281 women and girls, 2,214 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,532 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 22 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 71 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 820 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,570 |
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 Koa born?
The states with the most babies named Koa are California, Texas and Florida, with 31% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 183 | #221 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 141 | #298 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 88 | #247 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 77 | #193 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 66 | #210 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 44 | #232 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 42 | #292 | 0.7× |
| New York | 37 | #459 | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 37 | #309 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 37 | #309 | 0.5× |
Where Koa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Koa is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1978 it was given 11.2 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 Koa 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 32,978 babies since 1880, Koa is the second most given (26% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,413 of their 2,052 babies (69%), 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 Koa
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 Koa and names like it
- Compare Koa and CoyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKoa peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Koa since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Koa: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Koa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Koa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.