Kai

Where Kai comes from

Taken into regular use in the 1990s, with earlier popularity peaks in Scandinavia and Germany. The medieval Danish Kaj is possibly of Roman origin, Latinized as Caius, like the rare medieval English male given name Kay. The German Kai may also derive from a West Frisian pet form of Gerard, Cornelius, Nicholas, or Kampe "warrior". In the U.S. Kai has also been explained as Hawaiian kai (“sea”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Kai
  • Germanic
  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1918
    Kai Siegbahn born
    Swedish physicist
  2. 1926
    First appearance
    #3,708 among boys, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  3. 1999
    Kai Havertz born
    German association football player
  4. 2022
    Peak, #59
    5,374 babies named Kai — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name from the Germanic languages, of modern usage.
  • A female given name of modern usage.
Namesakes
  • Kai Siegbahn · Swedish physicist, 1918–2007
  • Kai Havertz · German association football player, born 1999
  • Kai Hansen · German guitarist and singer, born 1963
  • Kai Wegner · German politician, born 1972
  • Kai Cenat · American internet personality and online streamer, born 2001

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.