Kadi
Feminine
Kadi is four letters and at least three unrelated explanations, one of which is not a name at all but a job. The name is easy to say and easy to spell, and everything difficult about it is a question of where it came from.
How old is the name Kadi?
Kadi first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Kadi alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 900 people named Kadi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kadi most popular?
Kadi peaked in 1989, reaching #2618 nationally. See the whole 1989 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Katariina is shortened to Kadi in Estonian use to Kadi
The story of Kadi
The Arabic word spelled this way in English is an office rather than a name. A qadi is a judge in an Islamic legal system: a scholar appointed to hear cases and give judgment according to religious law, distinct from the jurist who writes and interprets that law without deciding cases. The distinction matters — one is a court, the other is a faculty — and it has structured legal thinking across the Muslim world for more than a thousand years. English has borrowed the word repeatedly and spelled it half a dozen ways, cadi and kadi among them, which is how an American name and an Arabic office end up looking identical on a page. They are not related, and it is better to say so plainly than to let the coincidence do work it has not earned.
Meaningnot established
Not established
In Estonia, Kadi is a standard short form of Katariina, and it functions there as a complete name. In America it may be exactly the same thing arrived at independently — Katie respelled — or a shortening of Kadence, or a name built from a sound. The Arabic word described below is a fourth possibility that is almost certainly a coincidence. Nothing in the record chooses between these, and the name is short enough that several sources could have produced it separately without any of them knowing.
How the name formed
- Katariina is shortened to Kadi in Estonian use
- Arabic qadi, a judge, is borrowed into English as cadi and kadi
- American parents respell Katie and Kady in several ways
- Kadi appears in American records without a documented source
Related forms: Kadi · Kady · Katie
Pronouncing Kadi
KAH-dee
Two syllables with the stress on the first. KAY-dee is also heard in America, treating the a as long, and the spelling supports either — which means the family's version has to be said rather than assumed.
Nicknames for Kadi
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 198943 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2618reached in 1989
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2024, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Kadi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kadi in Estonian — same name
- Kady in English — spelling variant
- Katie in English — related form
Kadis among us
people named Kadi are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Kadi sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Very short, phonetic and quick to write
- A real name in Estonia rather than an invention, if that is the branch a family claims
- Friendly and open in sound, with no consonant cluster anywhere
- Two pronunciations circulate and nothing in the spelling settles them.
- It reads as a nickname to many people, which can be wearing on formal documents.
- A search for the name returns an Arabic legal term before it returns anything about a person.
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Kadi
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kadis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Kadi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kadi in 2025?
- Kadi is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kadi with classmates?
- Kadi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kadi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kadi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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