Makena
Makena was given to 63 girls in 2025, #2,740 among girls’ names; 6,652 Americans have been recorded with it since 1984 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,590 Americans named Makena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 12 and 23.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Makena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Makena?
#2,740 among girls’ names, 2025
Makena fell from #1,129 in 2015 to #2,740 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.13 to 0.04 per 1,000.
381 babies in 2005, the peak
Makena peaked in 2005, when 381 girls were given it, #718 among girls’ names. The 63 births of 2025 are 17% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 63 | #2,740 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 97 | #2,025 | 0.06 |
| 2023 | 115 | #1,778 | 0.07 |
| 2022 | 108 | #1,881 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 115 | #1,777 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 119 | #1,713 | 0.07 |
| 2019 | 150 | #1,471 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 178 | #1,287 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 207 | #1,184 | 0.12 |
| 2016 | 224 | #1,136 | 0.13 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 226 | #1,129 | 0.13 |
| 2014 | 201 | #1,219 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 252 | #995 | 0.14 |
| 2012 | 255 | #990 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 236 | #1,048 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 294 | #899 | 0.17 |
| 2009 | 281 | #949 | 0.15 |
| 2008 | 323 | #863 | 0.17 |
| 2007 | 303 | #908 | 0.16 |
| 2006 | 341 | #804 | 0.18 |
| 2005 | 381 | #718 | 0.21 |
| 2004 | 297 | #831 | 0.16 |
| 2003 | 298 | #824 | 0.16 |
| 2002 | 306 | #774 | 0.17 |
| 2001 | 197 | #1,080 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 201 | #1,041 | 0.11 |
| 1999 | 165 | #1,178 | 0.09 |
| 1998 | 140 | #1,287 | 0.08 |
| 1997 | 123 | #1,385 | 0.07 |
| 1996 | 85 | #1,760 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 68 | #2,013 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 60 | #2,221 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 37 | #3,133 | 0.02 |
| 1992 | 42 | #2,849 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,453 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 13 | #6,705 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,257 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,773 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,671 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,180 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,882 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,720 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Makena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 6,652 Americans recorded as Makena, 99% are girls and 1% boys. In 2025 it went to 63 girls; SSA lists no boys 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 Makena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Makena, and how old are they?
6,590 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 6,652 Americans ever recorded as Makena. The median Makena alive today is 18 years old; half are between 12 and 23.
The 2020 Census counted 5,774 people named Makena (5,650 women and girls, 124 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,015 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 395 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,150 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,040 |
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 Makena born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 17 | #1,393 | 1.8× |
| Hawaii | 7 | #128 | 6.4× |
Where Makena is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Makena is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1984 it was given 6.4 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 girls’ 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 Makena with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Makena?
Makena is a less common spelling of Makenna: SSA has recorded 6,652 Makena and 33,749 Makenna since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 45,983 babies since 1880, Makena is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 63 of their 618 babies (10%), again the second 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 Makena
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 Makena and names like it
- Compare Makena and MakennaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMakena peaked in 2005.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Makena since 1910.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Makena.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Makena alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.