Nalani
Nalani was given to 754 girls in 2025, #414 among girls’ names; 7,954 Americans have been recorded with it since 1946 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,860 Americans named Nalani and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nalani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nalani mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nalani is “a female given name from Hawaiian.”
Also “a male given name from Hawaiian.”
Borrowing (or misspelling) from Hawaiian Nālani.
/nəˈlɑni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nalani?
#414 among girls’ names, 2025
Nalani rose from #1,282 in 2015 to #414 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.11 to 0.47 per 1,000.
754 babies in 2025, the peak
Nalani peaked in 2025, when 754 girls were given it, #414 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 577 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 754 | #414 | 0.47 |
| 2024 | 577 | #531 | 0.36 |
| 2023 | 507 | #593 | 0.32 |
| 2022 | 549 | #557 | 0.33 |
| 2021 | 503 | #595 | 0.31 |
| 2020 | 491 | #593 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 456 | #641 | 0.27 |
| 2018 | 413 | #706 | 0.24 |
| 2017 | 335 | #816 | 0.19 |
| 2016 | 269 | #988 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 190 | #1,282 | 0.11 |
| 2014 | 166 | #1,389 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 184 | #1,285 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 223 | #1,117 | 0.13 |
| 2011 | 199 | #1,207 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 211 | #1,155 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 158 | #1,473 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 137 | #1,651 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 183 | #1,331 | 0.10 |
| 2006 | 136 | #1,588 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 130 | #1,572 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 134 | #1,513 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 123 | #1,576 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 84 | #2,056 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 68 | #2,346 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 46 | #3,050 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 66 | #2,274 | 0.04 |
| 1998 | 46 | #2,873 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 27 | #4,090 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,828 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,307 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 31 | #3,580 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,481 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 25 | #4,179 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 26 | #4,012 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 30 | #3,592 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 30 | #3,449 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 21 | #4,262 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 20 | #4,221 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,888 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 12 | #5,922 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,817 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,816 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 12 | #5,781 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 14 | #5,155 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 19 | #4,095 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 14 | #5,008 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 16 | #4,392 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,840 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 16 | #4,089 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 25 | #2,933 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 9 | #6,077 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 10 | #5,449 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,919 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 6 | #8,008 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 9 | #5,681 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 6 | #7,196 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,811 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 8 | #5,300 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 9 | #4,756 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 6 | #6,293 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,536 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,373 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,255 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,161 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 5 | #6,930 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,907 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #5,231 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,756 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #6,274 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,366 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,914 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 9 | #3,861 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 8 | #4,108 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,293 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nalani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nalani has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 75 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nalani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nalani, and how old are they?
7,860 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 7,954 Americans ever recorded as Nalani. The median Nalani alive today is 8 years old; half are between 4 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 3,764 people named Nalani (3,745 women and girls, 19 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,640 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 72 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 167 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 310 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,950 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,360 |
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 Nalani born?
The states with the most babies named Nalani are Texas, California and Florida, with 29% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 93 | #370 | 0.9× |
| California | 65 | #514 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 49 | #381 | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 45 | #244 | 1.0× |
| New York | 39 | #448 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 39 | #262 | 1.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 39 | #286 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 34 | #321 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 28 | #412 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 28 | #325 | 0.6× |
Where Nalani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nalani is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1946 it was given 7.3 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 Nalani 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 10,962 babies since 1880, Nalani is the most given (73% of them). In 2025 it was given to 754 of their 1,285 babies (59%), 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 Nalani
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 Nalani and names like it
- Compare Nalani and NaylaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNalani peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nalani since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Nalani: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Nalani.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nalani alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.