Makana
Makana is given to both girls and boys: 6 girls and 19 boys were given it in 2025 (#14,281 among girls’ names and #5,136 among boys’, #8,978 among all names counting both); 860 Americans have been recorded with it since 1986 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Makana by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Makana mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Makana is “a male or female given name from Hawaiian” Its etymology gives the sense “gift” (makana).
makana (“gift”) ; also a short form of compound given names containing this element.
/maˈka.na/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Makana?
#5,136 among boys’ names, 2025
Makana rose from #6,174 in 2015 to #5,136 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 7.3 to 11.1 per million.
43 babies in 2007, the peak
Makana peaked in 2007, when 43 babies were given it (25 boys, #4,074 among boys’ names). The 25 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 58% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #14,281 | 19 | #5,136 |
| 2024 | 16 | #7,116 | 17 | #5,568 |
| 2023 | 14 | #7,882 | 17 | #5,588 |
| 2022 | 10 | #10,137 | 13 | #6,695 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,779 | 13 | #6,543 |
| 2020 | 7 | #12,972 | 8 | #9,234 |
| 2019 | 9 | #11,036 | 14 | #6,290 |
| 2018 | 9 | #11,102 | 11 | #7,432 |
| 2017 | 12 | #9,133 | 6 | #11,654 |
| 2016 | 8 | #12,451 | 29 | #3,738 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 9 | #11,500 | 14 | #6,174 |
| 2014 | 8 | #12,643 | 16 | #5,618 |
| 2013 | 5 | #18,253 | 22 | #4,407 |
| 2012 | 14 | #8,471 | 15 | #5,881 |
| 2011 | 7 | #14,243 | 15 | #5,847 |
| 2010 | 13 | #9,035 | 18 | #5,163 |
| 2009 | 15 | #8,297 | 17 | #5,461 |
| 2008 | 14 | #8,793 | 14 | #6,281 |
| 2007 | 18 | #7,292 | 25 | #4,074 |
| 2006 | 13 | #9,070 | 22 | #4,312 |
| 2005 | 17 | #7,033 | 15 | #5,466 |
| 2004 | 11 | #9,642 | 17 | #4,916 |
| 2003 | 19 | #6,212 | 11 | #6,547 |
| 2002 | 16 | #6,913 | 19 | #4,266 |
| 2001 | 16 | #6,843 | 18 | #4,395 |
| 2000 | 7 | #12,610 | 19 | #4,148 |
| 1999 | 5 | #15,889 | 17 | #4,259 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,788 | 16 | #4,317 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,573 | 11 | #5,514 |
| 1996 | 5 | #14,894 | 13 | #4,780 |
| 1995 | 5 | #14,820 | 15 | #4,183 |
| 1994 | 7 | #11,284 | 8 | #6,751 |
| 1993 | under 5 | 8 | #6,603 | |
| 1986 | under 5 | 5 | #7,402 |
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 Makana a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 860 Americans recorded as Makana, 40% are girls and 60% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Makana: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Makana, and how old are they?
An estimated 849 Americans named Makana and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 10 and 24. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 800 people named Makana (309 women and girls, 491 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 704 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% above 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 Makana born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | 9 | #120 | 87.8× |
Where Makana is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Makana is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1986 it was given 87.8 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 Makana 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,376 babies since 1880, Makana is the most given (63% of them). In 2025 it was given to 25 of their 51 babies (49%), 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 Makana
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 Makana and names like it
- Compare Makana and MakaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMakana peaked in 2007.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Makana since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Makana: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Makana.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Makana alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.