Kai is a first name for boys, occasionally also given to girls.
The name Kai isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Kai ranks 119. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 19 were named Kai. In the entire USA, approximately 60,198 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Kai. That is 0.02 % of all living Americans.
Kai is a common name worldwide with many meanings. In Hawaiian culture, for example, it means ‘sea’ or ‘sea water’, in Japanese culture Kai can be translated as ‘sea’ or ‘shell’, depending on its spelling. In China, Kai might also mean ‘triumph’ or ‘victory’.
In Europe,... Kai is perceived as having Frisian roots, a short form of the name 'Kaimbe', meaning “warrior”.
Kai Alexander (*1997)
The young British actor Kai Alexander is widely known for portraying Jeffrey in the British sticom 'Catastrophe' (2016 – 2019) as well as Richard Branson in the British biographical drama miniseries 'Pistol' (2022). Besides, he appears in the Apple TV+ miniseries 'Masters of the Air.'
Kai Altair (*1984)
The American singer-songwriter from New York City started his career with the electro rock band 'The Switch' in 2004. After five years with the band she decided to go on solo and released her first EP 'Star of the Sea.' It took six more years until she brought out her first full-length album 'Dreamwalker' (2015).
Kai Greene (*1975)
The former professional American bodybuilder is known for reaching the second place of IFBB's 'Mr. Olympia' three times. Ironically, he is often called the best bodybuilder who has never won a title
Kai Ephron (*1965)
The American film director is best widely for his work on the feature film 'Benjamin Troubles' (2015). In addition he produced the feature films 'Sexual Intent' (1993) and 'Flesh Suitcase' (1995) in which he also appeared as lead actor. He also contributed as a location manager in the movies 'Inception' (2010) and 'Super 8' (2011).
When you hear the name Kai, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Kai? Are you also called Kai? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
The southeastern part of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia comprise a group of islands which is called Kai Islands. They are known for their specific plants such as nutmeg or cloves.
In the Yamanashi Prefecture in central Japan there is a city with the name Kai. It has an estimated population of 73,626 and total area 27.78 square miles.
at Kai Restaurant in the city of Chandler in Arizona. It is a Forbes Travel Guide 5-star restaurant specializing in native regional cuisine of central Arizona.
This is a real surprise! Kai is a name that has been around for a long time, but only really took off in the 21st century. In the year 2022, it reached its best rank at #56 according to our SmartGenius statistics. This makes Kai much more popular than in previous generations, where it was so rare for several years that it was not even recorded in the statistics. While the name Kai was observed for the first time ever in 1926, it now seems to have found its place in the zeitgeist of the 21st century. In 2022, the year of its highest popularity, the name was given a total of 5,699 times. Whether this beautiful boys' name can repeat or even exceed its previous best ranking in the coming years remains to be seen, but the prospects are promising given the positive trend.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Kai was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
The name Kai may not be in the top rankings of the most popular boys’ names, but it is one of the few male given names, along with only 385 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Kai is apparently especially popular in Hawaii. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular men’s names here either, one in 513 men in Hawaii is called Kai. In total, that’s 1,058 people who feel addressed when the name Kai is shouted loudly across Hawaii and who ensure that their name makes it to #129 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common male names in this nice state. If you asked all people in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Kai as the answer a total of 60,198 times. This places Kai at #412 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular male names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living people across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Kai as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter K is a real popular first letter for boys’ names. That’s because 7.9% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters J, A and D are more common for boys' names.
With only three letters, the name Kai is obviously very short. In fact, only 1.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly three letters. Just 0.2% of all first names are even shorter and only have two letters, while nearly 99% of all boys’ and girls’ names use more than three letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that if 7.9% of all boys' names start with a K, this initial letter occurs more than twice as often as all 26 letters on average. Interesting detail: of all the boys’ names that begin with a K, Kenneth is the most common.
If your name is Kai and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Kai, you can simply say:
Koala
Apple
Igloo
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Kai
Kai
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
K
A
I
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
K
A
I
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Kai sounds like this:
