Head to head · Boys' names
Bodhi vs Kayson
#265 vs #264 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
Kayson is a whisker ahead (#264 vs #265 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Kayson leads 4 measures of 6; Bodhi leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1970s: Bodhi #5829, Kayson — — Bodhi higher
- 1980s: Bodhi —, Kayson #6792 — Kayson higher
- 1990s: Bodhi #3613, Kayson #5119 — Bodhi higher
- 2000s: Bodhi #2047, Kayson #2068 — Bodhi higher
- 2010s: Bodhi #589, Kayson #482 — Kayson higher
- 2020s: Bodhi #290, Kayson #281 — Kayson higher
The decades split evenly, 3 each; Kayson has held the lead since the 2010s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Bodhi | Kayson |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | #5829 | — |
| 1980s | — | #6792 |
| 1990s | #3613 | #5119 |
| 2000s | #2047 | #2068 |
| 2010s | #589 | #482 |
| 2020s | #290 | #281 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Bodhi
- England & Wales#97
Kayson
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Bodhi
awakening, enlightenment
From the Sanskrit and Pali noun bodhi, built on the verbal root budh-, 'to wake, to know'. The same root gives bodhisattva and the Buddha's own title, 'the awakened one'.
budh- (Sanskrit root, 'to wake') → bodhi (Sanskrit and Pali noun) → Bodhi (English given name)
How it traveled
Bodhi begins as a common noun rather than a name: in Sanskrit and Pali it is the word for awakening, the state Siddhartha Gautama reached seated under a fig tree at Bodh Gaya in northern India. The tree took the word as its label, and so did related terms — bodhisattva, bodhicitta — that spread with Buddhism across Asia, surfacing as bodai in Japanese and puti in Chinese.
Kayson
Not established
No etymology has been established for Kayson, because it was assembled in English rather than inherited from an older language. What is documented is its shape: it sits among Kason, Cason, Kaysen and Jayson, and shares the -son ending common to Mason, Carson and Grayson. Jason, which it echoes, comes from Greek Iason — but Kayson is not a documented descendant of it, only a neighbor in sound.
Our story of Kayson — where the record runs out
Some names arrive with a paper trail; this one arrived with a sound. Kayson is made of pieces that were already loved in American English — the bright Kay- that opens Kayden and Kaleb, the -son close that carries Mason, Carson and Jason — and someone put them together and it held.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Bodhi
BOH-dee
The 'dh' is a single Sanskrit consonant, not an English 'th' — say a plain d. Stress falls on the first syllable, and the name rhymes with 'roady'.
- Bo — The most common short form, and a long-established given name in its own right in American use.
- Bode — Informal, used within families; also exists separately as a given name.
- Bodhi-boy / Bud — Household-only affectionate forms rather than anything that follows a child to school.
Kayson
KAY-sun
Rhymes with Mason. Stress on the first syllable; the -ay- spelling makes the long A explicit, so the reading is rarely in doubt.
- Kay — The obvious informal clip; also stands alone as a given name in English, historically for girls, and as the name of Sir Kay in Arthurian romance.
- Kays — Casual, playground-style shortening, mostly used by friends rather than family.
- K — Initial-only nickname, common in American families and often paired with a middle initial as K.J.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Bodhi if you want…
- a name that charts abroad tooBodhi is on the national lists of England & Wales
Choose Kayson if you want…
On the measures here, the records do not separate Kayson from Bodhi.
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Bodhi
Strengths
- Short, two syllables, and pronounced the way it looks once heard — no ambiguity about stress or vowels.
- Bo is a ready-made short form that already stands alone as a name in American use.
- The word itself has an unbroken written record of well over two thousand years in Sanskrit and Pali.
To consider
- The spelling will need repeating. Bodie, Bode and Brody are all in circulation, and the silent-h version is the one people are least likely to guess first.
- It is a term of real religious weight in Buddhism, and some families — Buddhist and not — think carefully about using a sacred word as a personal name. Worth deciding where you stand before the questions come.
- The name's wave is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying it is a child. It reads as unmistakably of this era rather than as a name passed down, which may be exactly the point or may not.
Kayson
Strengths
- Reads correctly on first sight for English speakers — the -ay- spells the long A out, so the pronunciation almost never needs correcting.
- Sits in a pattern Americans already know from Mason, Carson and Jason, so it sounds familiar without being duplicated.
- Rare enough in practice that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
To consider
- The spelling competition is real: Kason, Cason, Kaysen and Jayson all exist, so "K or C? -son or -sen?" will be a lifelong question at the pharmacy counter and on forms.
- There is no documented meaning to offer relatives who ask. If a name's etymology matters to you, this one cannot supply one — its history is a sound, not a word.
- The name's wave is very recent, so it reads clearly as belonging to today's children rather than to any earlier generation.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Bodhi and Kayson in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Bodhi and Kayson?
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Boho names for free spirits
- Star Wars names in the American record
- Names ending in -i
- The names with the most spellings
- all guides
Where Bodhi and Kayson each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Bodhi or Kayson — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Bodhi or Kayson?
- Kayson, in 2025: Kayson ranked #264 with 1,305 babies; Bodhi ranked #265 with 1,301 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Bodhi or Kayson?
- Neither has pulled away: over the last five years Bodhi moved up 30 places and Kayson moved up 30 places.
- Which is the older name, Bodhi or Kayson?
- Bodhi entered the US charts in 1976; Kayson entered the US charts in 1982. On the American record, Bodhi is the older name.
- How many people are named Bodhi and Kayson?
- About 14,000 people named Bodhi are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 15,000 people named Kayson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Bodhis or Kaysons in the classroom?
- Bodhi will almost certainly be the only one in school. Kayson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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