Mekhi
Mekhi was given to 176 boys in 2025, #1,174 among boys’ names; 12,467 Americans have been recorded with it since 1995 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,300 Americans named Mekhi 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 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mekhi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mekhi mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Mekhi is “a male given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage.”
An African-American coinage, popularized by the actor Mekhi Phifer.
/mɛˈkaɪ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mekhi?
#1,174 among boys’ names, 2025
Mekhi fell from #632 in 2015 to #1,174 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.22 to 0.10 per 1,000.
868 babies in 2005, the peak
Mekhi peaked in 2005, when 868 babies were given it (861 boys, #344 among boys’ names). The 176 births of 2025 are 20% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 176 | #1,174 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 218 | #1,025 | 0.13 |
| 2023 | 223 | #989 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 239 | #950 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 272 | #861 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 300 | #782 | 0.17 |
| 2019 | 329 | #733 | 0.18 |
| 2018 | 459 | #598 | 0.25 |
| 2017 | 474 | #575 | 0.26 |
| 2016 | 428 | #627 | 0.23 |
Every recorded year (31)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 423 | #632 | 0.22 |
| 2014 | 454 | #599 | 0.24 |
| 2013 | 521 | #513 | 0.28 |
| 2012 | 529 | #503 | 0.28 |
| 2011 | 544 | #484 | 0.29 |
| 2010 | 544 | #479 | 0.28 |
| 2009 | 623 | #446 | 0.31 |
| 2008 | 673 | #431 | 0.33 |
| 2007 | 621 | #449 | 0.30 |
| 2006 | 616 | #443 | 0.30 |
| 2005 | 861 | #344 | 0.43 |
| 2004 | 826 | #345 | 0.42 |
| 2003 | 688 | #378 | 0.35 |
| 2002 | 406 | #546 | 0.21 |
| 2001 | 303 | #626 | 0.16 |
| 2000 | 163 | #934 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 193 | #795 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 154 | #923 | 0.08 |
| 1997 | 57 | #1,716 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 25 | #2,990 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 12 | #5,002 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Mekhi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mekhi has been given almost only to boys: 113 girls in 31 years of records.
Girls and boys named Mekhi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mekhi, and how old are they?
12,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 12,467 Americans ever recorded as Mekhi. The median Mekhi alive today is 17 years old; half are between 10 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 8,714 people named Mekhi (111 women and girls, 8,603 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,010 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% 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 | 36 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,790 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,490 |
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 Mekhi born?
The states with the most babies named Mekhi are Michigan, Florida and Ohio, with 30% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 16 | #531 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 14 | #993 | 1.3× |
| Ohio | 13 | #698 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 12 | #775 | 2.0× |
| Texas | 12 | #1,531 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 11 | #809 | 1.3× |
| Missouri | 9 | #627 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 8 | #989 | 1.2× |
| Maryland | 8 | #612 | 2.3× |
| New York | 7 | #1,512 | 1.4× |
Where Mekhi is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Mekhi is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1995 it was given 3.8 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 Mekhi 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 15,618 babies since 1880, Mekhi is the most given (80% of them). In 2025 it was given to 176 of their 248 babies (71%), 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 Mekhi
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 Mekhi and names like it
- Compare Mekhi and MehkiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMekhi peaked in 2005.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mekhi since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Mekhi: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Mekhi.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Mekhi alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.