Makai
Makai was given to 626 boys in 2025, #481 among boys’ names; 9,609 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,520 Americans named Makai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Makai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Makai mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Makai is “a male given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Makai?
#481 among boys’ names, 2025
Makai rose from #681 in 2015 to #481 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.19 to 0.37 per 1,000.
626 babies in 2025, the peak
Makai peaked in 2025, when 626 boys were given it, #481 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 559 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 626 | #481 | 0.37 |
| 2024 | 559 | #533 | 0.32 |
| 2023 | 611 | #492 | 0.36 |
| 2022 | 572 | #518 | 0.33 |
| 2021 | 534 | #547 | 0.31 |
| 2020 | 518 | #550 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 499 | #559 | 0.28 |
| 2018 | 484 | #571 | 0.27 |
| 2017 | 411 | #631 | 0.22 |
| 2016 | 422 | #634 | 0.22 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 371 | #681 | 0.19 |
| 2014 | 341 | #709 | 0.18 |
| 2013 | 348 | #691 | 0.18 |
| 2012 | 348 | #680 | 0.18 |
| 2011 | 356 | #666 | 0.19 |
| 2010 | 341 | #690 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 361 | #674 | 0.18 |
| 2008 | 234 | #893 | 0.11 |
| 2007 | 233 | #878 | 0.11 |
| 2006 | 232 | #863 | 0.11 |
| 2005 | 230 | #821 | 0.12 |
| 2004 | 143 | #1,111 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 128 | #1,170 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 122 | #1,163 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 72 | #1,638 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 52 | #1,984 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 49 | #1,979 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 37 | #2,374 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 21 | #3,412 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 17 | #3,945 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 14 | #4,423 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 7 | #7,304 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 5 | #8,725 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Makai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 9,609 Americans recorded as Makai, 3% are girls and 97% boys. In 2025 it went to 626 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 Makai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Makai, and how old are they?
9,520 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 9,609 Americans ever recorded as Makai. The median Makai alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 5,117 people named Makai (283 women and girls, 4,834 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,221 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% 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 | 42 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 6,380 |
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 Makai born?
The states with the most babies named Makai are Texas, California and Florida, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 51 | #606 | 0.5× |
| California | 50 | #595 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 49 | #401 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 45 | #277 | 1.5× |
| North Carolina | 28 | #403 | 0.9× |
| New York | 27 | #576 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 26 | #425 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 23 | #360 | 1.2× |
| Alabama | 22 | #256 | 0.6× |
| South Carolina | 19 | #295 | 0.9× |
Where Makai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Makai is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1989 it was given 2.7 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 Makai 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 22,015 babies since 1880, Makai is the most given (44% of them). In 2025 it was given to 626 of their 1,076 babies (58%), again the most given.
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 Makai
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 Makai and names like it
- Compare Makai and MakhiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMakai peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Makai since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Makai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Makai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.