Kairi
Feminine · “sea (one Japanese reading)”
Kairi is given to both — 6,256 girls and 569 boys since 1880. See Kairi as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Kairi is short, maritime and modern all at once: a Japanese sea-word that an early-2000s video game turned into a heroine, and a generation of players later turned into a daughter's name. It says itself in two light syllables and shortens to Kai without being asked.
How old is the name Kairi?
Kairi first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Kairi is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 6,200 people named Kairi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kairi most popular?
Kairi peaked in 2019, reaching #689 nationally. Today it ranks #1040, 351 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Kairi appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kairi
In Japan the name sits in the sea family of given names, built on kai, the sea. American parents mostly met it elsewhere: the Kingdom Hearts games, beginning in the early 2000s, named their three island friends for sky, land and sea — Sora, Riku and Kairi — and the players who grew up with them eventually named daughters. That road from screen to nursery inside a generation is as old as novels and as new as consoles, and Kairi walked it cleanly.
Meaningscholars disagree
sea (one Japanese reading)
Two roads compete. In Japanese, kai means 'sea' and kairi is the ordinary word for a nautical mile — as a Japanese girl's name it belongs to the sea family. In the United States the name owes at least as much to Kairi, the island-born heroine of the Kingdom Hearts video games, whose name was coined on that same Japanese root. Some families also arrive at it as a fresh spin on Kari or Kyrie. The sound is agreed; the road taken is each family's own.
Pronouncing Kairi
KY-ree
Two syllables, KY as in sky. Japanese speakers give it three light beats — kah-ee-ree — and both are heard among bearers.
Nicknames for Kairi
Limited
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
- 1980
- Most girls named
- 2019421 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #689reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −2.4%239 in 2025, from 245
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.
Kairi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 海里 (Kairi) in Japanese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Kairis among us
people named Kairi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,725 born in 2025 was named Kairi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kairi
- #1040
- Kairi on the 2025 chart
- #699
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kairi went to 239 girls in 2025, but Kairy and Kayri are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 266, which makes it the 699th most-given girls’ name of the year — 341 places above the chart.
- Kairi239
- Kairy20
- Kayri7
About 1 girl in 6,042 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,725 for Kairi itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Nikole test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kairi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nikole climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nikole's path sketches the road Kairi is walking now.
Kairi sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kairi is headed
Kairi is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kairi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kairi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, melodic and spelled close to its sound.
- The fallback Kai is one of the most portable short names there is.
- Real roots in Japanese alongside its pop-culture life — the name holds up outside the game.
- Players of a certain generation will place the reference instantly; the association is friendly, but permanent.
- Often misheard as Kyrie or Carrie on first meeting.
- Spelling drift toward Kyrie and Kairie is common on forms.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kairi
Feminine · #1040 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kairis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,200 people named Kairi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kairi?
- Kairi is the most-used spelling in US records — 239 of the 266 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kairy and Kayri.
- How popular is the name Kairi in 2025?
- Kairi ranks #1040 among US girl names in 2025, with 239 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kairi?
- About 1 in every 6,725 US girls born in 2025 was named Kairi — 239 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kairi with classmates?
- Kairi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kairi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alexia#1040 · Salome#1040 · Eleni#1038 · Kassidy#1038 · Whitney#1043 · Eimy#1043 · Lorraine#1043 · Paisleigh#1043
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kairi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kairi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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