Nakoa
Nakoa was given to 106 boys in 2025, #1,606 among boys’ names; 1,212 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,200 Americans named Nakoa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 12.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nakoa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nakoa mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Nakoa is “a male given name from Hawaiian” Its etymology gives the sense “brave” (nakoa).
From nakoa (“brave”).
/naˈko.a/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nakoa?
#1,606 among boys’ names, 2025
Nakoa rose from #4,499 in 2015 to #1,606 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 11.5 to 62.1 per million.
127 babies in 2024, the peak
Nakoa peaked in 2024, when 127 babies were given it (115 boys, #1,537 among boys’ names). The 113 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 89% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 106 | #1,606 | 62.1 |
| 2024 | 115 | #1,537 | 66.7 |
| 2023 | 116 | #1,524 | 67.8 |
| 2022 | 99 | #1,717 | 56.7 |
| 2021 | 105 | #1,619 | 60.0 |
| 2020 | 70 | #2,038 | 40.6 |
| 2019 | 75 | #1,969 | 41.8 |
| 2018 | 53 | #2,461 | 29.2 |
| 2017 | 37 | #3,172 | 20.0 |
| 2016 | 28 | #3,859 | 14.8 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 22 | #4,499 | 11.5 |
| 2014 | 24 | #4,216 | 12.5 |
| 2013 | 29 | #3,633 | 15.3 |
| 2012 | 18 | #5,187 | 9.5 |
| 2011 | 16 | #5,591 | 8.4 |
| 2010 | 17 | #5,401 | 8.9 |
| 2009 | 22 | #4,541 | 11.1 |
| 2008 | 20 | #4,841 | 9.8 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,689 | 4.3 |
| 2006 | 14 | #5,998 | 6.8 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,483 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 17 | #4,935 | 8.6 |
| 2003 | 8 | #8,374 | 4.0 |
| 2002 | 10 | #6,884 | 5.2 |
| 2001 | 11 | #6,293 | 5.7 |
| 2000 | 16 | #4,719 | 8.1 |
| 1999 | 7 | #8,437 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 7 | #8,170 | 3.7 |
| 1997 | 8 | #7,067 | 4.2 |
| 1996 | 8 | #6,919 | 4.2 |
| 1995 | 6 | #8,538 | 3.2 |
| 1994 | 5 | #9,802 | 2.6 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,808 | 4.5 |
| 1979 | 8 | #4,704 | 4.6 |
| 1978 | 7 | #4,879 | 4.3 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,624 | 3.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nakoa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,212 Americans recorded as Nakoa, 6% are girls and 94% boys. In 2025 it went to 7 girls and 106 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Nakoa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nakoa, and how old are they?
1,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,212 Americans ever recorded as Nakoa. The median Nakoa alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 12.
The 2020 Census counted 531 people named Nakoa (62 women and girls, 469 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 562 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 27 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 18 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 212 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 943 |
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 Nakoa born?
The states with the most babies named Nakoa are California, Colorado and Washington, with 60% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Colorado and Washington are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 19 | #1,106 | 1.2× |
| Colorado | 8 | #662 | 1.1× |
| Washington | 8 | #782 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,183 | 0.2× |
| Hawaii | 6 | #201 | 40.5× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,014 | 0.6× |
| Arizona | 5 | #999 | 0.6× |
Where Nakoa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nakoa is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1977 it was given 40.5 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 Nakoa 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 2,643 babies since 1880, Nakoa is the most given (46% of them). In 2025 it was given to 113 of their 200 babies (57%), 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 Nakoa
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 Nakoa and names like it
- Compare Nakoa and NakaiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNakoa peaked in 2024.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nakoa since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Nakoa: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Nakoa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nakoa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.