Kayonna
Feminine
Kayonna joins two of the most-used elements of its era: a Kay- front, which had been productive in American naming since the 1940s, and an -onna ending that arrived much later. The result is a name that carries two different decades inside it. Its peak is 2001.
How old is the name Kayonna?
Kayonna first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Kayonna alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 600 people named Kayonna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kayonna most popular?
Kayonna peaked in 2001, reaching #4688 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 1,428 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kay to Kayonna
Our story of Kayonna
Naming elements have different ages, and a compound can carry two eras at once. Kay- is old by the standards of American coinage: Kay was a top-hundred girls' name in the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1960s it had detached and become a front — Kaycee, Kaylene, Kaydra, Kayonna. The -onna ending is a generation younger, arriving in the 1970s and 1980s alongside Shawnna, Dionna and Latonna. Joining them produces a name that an experienced ear can date to the overlap, roughly 1985 to 2005, more precisely than either element alone would allow. That is one of the quiet uses of etymology: even a name with no meaning has a history, and the history is legible in the parts.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No documented source. Kay has genuine ancestries as a name in its own right — a short form of Katherine, and separately the name of a knight in the Arthurian cycle — but as a front element here it carries none of that. The -onna ending is a variant of the -anna and -ona terminals that were productive in African-American naming from the 1970s, and it has no lexical content. Any gloss offered for the compound is invented.
How the name formed
- Kay
- Kayonna
Related forms: Kayona · Keyonna
Pronouncing Kayonna
kay-AH-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. A four-syllable kay-YOH-nah, giving the o its full value, is also heard. Both circulate in American use.
Nicknames for Kayonna
High
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
- 1977
- Most girls named
- 200827 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4688reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- +137.5%19 in 2025, 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.
Kayonna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kayona in English — spelling variant
- Keyonna in English — related form
Kayonnas among us
people named Kayonna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Kayonna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Damarys test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kayonna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Damarys climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Damarys's path sketches the road Kayonna is walking now.
Kayonna 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
Kayonna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kayonna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kay is a complete traditional name available as a short form.
- The spelling is phonetic and gives English readers no real difficulty.
- It sits in a recognizable family and is placed instantly on first hearing.
- Two pronunciations circulate and the spelling does not settle which.
- Kayonna, Kayona and Keyonna all exist, so records will drift.
- There is no documented meaning to give when asked.
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What they receive
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Kayonna
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kayonnas 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 Kayonna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kayonna in 2025?
- Kayonna ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kayonna?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Kayonna — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kayonna with classmates?
- Kayonna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kayonna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kayonna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kayonna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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