Kani
Masculine · “spring”
Kani is given to both — 652 boys and 262 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Kurdish kani is a spring: the place where water comes out of the ground. In a mountain country that is where a village goes, which is why the word turns up in Kurdish place names constantly and why it works as a name for a person.
How old is the name Kani?
Kani first appears in US birth records in 1993 — 32 years ago. The typical Kani alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 600 people named Kani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kani most popular?
Kani peaked in 2006, reaching #2578 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 4,225 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kani to Kani
The story of Kani
Kurdish naming draws heavily on landscape and on natural features, which is characteristic of a people whose identity is closely tied to a particular terrain: Kani, Baran, Berivan, Zilan and Dilan all come from that stock. A spring is not a decorative image in a mountain region; it determines where people can live. The Turkish kani is a separate Arabic loan meaning content or persuaded, and both are used as men's names in the same region. In United States records the name is rare and appears with Kurdish, Turkish and African American families alike; its best year is 2006.
Meaningscholars disagree
spring, fountain (Kurdish), or convinced (Turkish)
Kurdish kani means a spring or a fountain and is a genuine element in Kurdish naming and place names. Turkish kani, from Arabic, means convinced or satisfied. A third route makes the American Kani a Ka- prefix coinage with no meaning at all, and a fourth treats it as a clip of Kaniya. The records cannot separate them.
How the name formed
- kani
- Kani
Related forms: Kani · Kani · Qani
Pronouncing Kani
KAH-nee
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Turkish puts a circumflex on the a, marking it long, which the English spelling does not show.
Nicknames for Kani
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
- 1993
- Most boys named
- 200646 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2578reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −20.0%12 in 2025, from 15
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.
Kani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kani in Kurdish — same name
- Kani in Turkish — related form
- Qani in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Virginia.
Kanis among us
people named Kani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Kani
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kani
- #6803
- Kani on the 2025 chart
- #911
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kani went to 12 boys in 2025, but Khani is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 17, which makes it the 911th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,892 places above the chart.
- Kani12
- Khani5
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 142,340 for Kani 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 Boruch test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Boruch climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Boruch's path sketches the road Kani is walking now.
Kani 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
Kani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A concrete Kurdish meaning tied to something a landscape actually contains.
- Four letters, two syllables, and no spelling difficulty.
- Recognized across Kurdish and Turkish communities.
- Several unrelated traditions share the spelling.
- It is close to Kani, Kenan and Kanye and gets confused.
- The name is unfamiliar in most American settings.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kani
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Kani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kani?
- Kani is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 17 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Khani.
- How popular is the name Kani in 2025?
- Kani ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kani?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Kani — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kani with classmates?
- Kani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kani
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kani? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kani and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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