Nakai
Nakai was given to 62 boys in 2025, #2,275 among boys’ names; 1,132 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,120 Americans named Nakai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 6 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nakai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nakai?
#2,275 among boys’ names, 2025
Nakai rose from #3,064 in 2015 to #2,275 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 19.8 to 36.3 per million.
62 babies in 2025, the peak
Nakai peaked in 2025, when 62 boys were given it, #2,275 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 40 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 62 | #2,275 | |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,840 | 40 | #3,079 |
| 2023 | under 5 | 49 | #2,679 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 41 | #3,036 | |
| 2021 | 7 | #13,094 | 54 | #2,481 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,589 | 34 | #3,319 |
| 2019 | 13 | #8,465 | 32 | #3,538 |
| 2018 | 9 | #11,172 | 27 | #3,954 |
| 2017 | under 5 | 40 | #2,986 | |
| 2016 | 5 | #18,055 | 33 | #3,411 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #14,046 | 38 | #3,064 |
| 2014 | under 5 | 36 | #3,139 | |
| 2013 | 7 | #14,181 | 27 | #3,823 |
| 2012 | 9 | #11,944 | 24 | #4,212 |
| 2011 | 6 | #16,186 | 24 | #4,176 |
| 2010 | 6 | #16,355 | 24 | #4,197 |
| 2009 | under 5 | 32 | #3,452 | |
| 2008 | 14 | #8,835 | 39 | #3,045 |
| 2007 | 7 | #14,996 | 44 | #2,751 |
| 2006 | under 5 | 35 | #3,132 | |
| 2005 | 8 | #12,661 | 32 | #3,210 |
| 2004 | 12 | #9,096 | 34 | #2,993 |
| 2003 | 7 | #13,405 | 28 | #3,332 |
| 2002 | under 5 | 10 | #6,883 | |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,788 | 23 | #3,684 |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,451 | 6 | #9,918 |
| 1999 | under 5 | 10 | #6,357 | |
| 1998 | 10 | #9,067 | 16 | #4,338 |
| 1997 | under 5 | 9 | #6,448 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 12 | #5,085 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 6 | #8,537 | |
| 1994 | 5 | #14,987 | 9 | #6,189 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,838 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,695 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,698 | 9 | #3,841 |
| 1974 | 9 | #6,076 | 8 | #4,075 |
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 Nakai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,132 Americans recorded as Nakai, 16% are girls and 84% boys. In 2025 it went to 62 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 Nakai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nakai, and how old are they?
1,120 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,132 Americans ever recorded as Nakai. The median Nakai alive today is 13 years old; half are between 6 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 748 people named Nakai (186 women and girls, 562 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 831 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 35 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 37 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 474 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 571 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 2,980 babies since 1880, Nakai is the second most given (38% of them). In 2025 it was given to 62 of their 200 babies (31%), 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 Nakai
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 Nakai and names like it
- Compare Nakai and NakoaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNakai peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nakai since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Nakai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nakai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.