Kai

The popularity of the name Kai in America is almost certainly influenced by Hawaiian culture. Kai only first entered the U.S. popularity charts as a male given name in 1979. Before that, it essentially didn’t exist in the United States outside of Hawaii. As tourism in Hawaii became a mainstream recreation for scores of Americans, more and more people of the United States were exposed to this unique culture. There are certain words that are distinctly Hawaiian and Kai (ocean) is obviously one of them. By the 1990s, the name Kai was on the rise and today it’s reaching its peak popularity. Not quite a Top 200 favorite, we think it’ll make the list any year now. It may never be a Top 100 (perhaps too exotic for the mainland haoles); we’ll have to wait and see. Kai is currently the most popular Hawaiian male name on the charts today. Even though it’s not a Top 200 yet nationwide, Kai was ranked #28th most popular boy’s name in the state of Hawaii (surprise, surprise) and #91 in Alaska (another state that relies on the “kai”). And we just can’t help picturing Kai as a surfer-boy, a swimmer, a rower, a sailor, a fisherman, or an ocean environmentalist. Anything and everything having to do with the sea – otherwise please don’t waste this name on your child if you live in a land-locked state. We understand that Kai has cool and mighty written all over it; but he is a child that should be reared near the sea.