Kaiyah
Feminine
Kaiyah joins Kai — a syllable that means real things in Hawaiian, Japanese and Welsh — to the -yah ending of modern American naming.
How old is the name Kaiyah?
Kaiyah first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Kaiyah is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Kaiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaiyah most popular?
Kaiyah peaked in 2015, reaching #2524 nationally. Today it ranks #3832, 1,308 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kaiyah
Ours, offered as ours. Kai is one of those rare syllables that means something in unrelated languages — the sea in Hawaiian, several things in Japanese, a knight's name in Welsh — and American naming took it up without needing to choose. Kaiyah adds the -yah that Aaliyah and Maliyah left in circulation. The Hawaiian sea is the reading most families have in mind, and it is a real word even if the compound is not.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source is established for the compound. Kai is documented separately in several languages: Hawaiian kai is the sea, Japanese kai has several senses depending on the character, and Welsh Cai is an Arthurian name. The -yah ending is a modern American suffix.
Pronouncing Kaiyah
KY-ah
Two syllables, first stressed. Some families give it three, KY-ee-ah.
Nicknames for Kaiyah
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
- 1996
- Most girls named
- 201571 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2524reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- −43.3%38 in 2025, from 67
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.
Kaiyah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kai in Hawaiian — related form
- Kaia in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kaiyahs among us
people named Kaiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 42,297 born in 2025 was named Kaiyah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaiyah
- #3832
- Kaiyah on the 2025 chart
- #129
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaiyah went to 38 girls in 2025, but Kaia, Kaiya and Kaya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 11 spellings went to 2,288, which makes it the 129th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,703 places above the chart.
and 3 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 702 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 42,297 for Kaiyah 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 Rashawn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaiyah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rashawn climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rashawn's path sketches the road Kaiyah is walking now.
Kaiyah 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 Kaiyah is headed
Kaiyah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Kaiyah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaiyah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kai is a complete short form with real lives in several languages.
- Open vowels make it easy to say in most languages.
- Read correctly on sight by most English speakers.
- Kaiyah, Kaia, Kaya and Kiya are all in use and none is dominant.
- The syllable count is unsettled between two and three.
- There is no documented meaning for the compound.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Kaiyah
Feminine · #3832 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaiyahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Kaiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaiyah?
- Kaiyah is one of 8 recorded spellings. Kaia is the more common one — 1,618 births in 2025 against 38 for Kaiyah.
- How popular is the name Kaiyah in 2025?
- Kaiyah ranks #3832 among US girl names in 2025, with 38 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaiyah?
- About 1 in every 42,297 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaiyah — 38 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaiyah with classmates?
- Kaiyah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaiyah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nohemi#3832 · Yadira#3832 · Quincey#3832 · Yohanna#3832 · Aurielle#3832 · Anslee#3832 · Anagha#3832 · Corrine#3832
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaiyah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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