Keilani
Feminine · “the second element is lani”
Keilani is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 5,304 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Keilani belongs to the largest family of names in Hawaiian: the ones built on lani, sky and heaven and the high-born. It shares that ending with Leilani, Kalani and Noelani, so even people meeting it for the first time tend to recognize the shape of it. Four open syllables, no hard consonants, and the stress landing squarely in the middle — kay-LAH-nee.
How old is the name Keilani?
Keilani first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Keilani is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,300 people named Keilani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keilani most popular?
Keilani peaked in 2022, reaching #632 nationally. Today it ranks #727, 95 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Keilani appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Keilani
The building block here is old: lani carries the sense of sky, heaven and royalty in Hawaiian, and it closes a whole line of names — Leilani, Kalani, Noelani, Iolani among them. Hawaiian names traveled into wider American use across the twentieth century, Leilani leading the way through songs and film, and the -lani ending became familiar far from the islands. Keilani arrived on the mainland record much later than its older relatives, and it has held a modest, unbroken place ever since, strongest in California, Texas and Florida. It sits at the meeting point of two things: a genuinely Hawaiian element, and a more recent American appetite for names ending in that soft, open -ani.
Meaningscholars disagree
the second element is lani, Hawaiian for 'sky, heaven, royal'; the first is read more than one way
Lani is settled and appears in dozens of Hawaiian names. The opening syllable is where readings diverge: some take it as kei, 'glory, dignity, splendor', giving something like 'heavenly glory'; others treat Keilani as a variant of Kailani, from kai, 'sea', giving 'sea and sky'. Both readings are defensible, and the name is short enough that either one fits it comfortably.
Pronouncing Keilani
kay-LAH-nee
In Hawaiian, ei is said like the ay in day, and every vowel gets its own beat. English speakers seeing it cold often try KEE-lah-nee or KYE-lah-nee, so expect to correct it now and then; once heard, it usually sticks.
Nicknames for Keilani
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 2022466 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #632reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +1.9%383 in 2025, from 376
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.
Keilani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kailani in Hawaiian — spelling variant
- Leilani in Hawaiian — related form
- Kalani in Hawaiian — related form
- Noelani in Hawaiian — related form
- Lani in Hawaiian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Keilanis among us
people named Keilani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,197 born in 2025 was named Keilani
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Keilani
- #727
- Keilani on the 2025 chart
- #376
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Keilani went to 383 girls in 2025, but Keilany, Keylani and Keilanny and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 10 spellings went to 788, which makes it the 376th most-given girls’ name of the year — 351 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 2,040 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,197 for Keilani 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 Daniel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keilani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Daniel climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Daniel's path sketches the road Keilani is walking now.
Keilani 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 Keilani is headed
Keilani 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.
Keilani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keilani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognizable by association: the -lani ending is already familiar in the US through Leilani and Kalani, so the name rarely sounds unplaceable.
- Has a genuine, widely used short form in Lani, which also works as a standalone name.
- Every syllable is pronounced as written once the ay sound of ei is known — no silent letters, no hidden stress.
- A record spanning several decades rather than a single burst, and steady presence in California, Texas and Florida.
- Keilani, Kailani, Kalani and Keilana all circulate at once, so a child will spend a fair amount of life spelling it out and hearing the near-misses back.
- First encounters often produce KEE-lah-nee rather than kay-LAH-nee. Easy to fix, but it happens repeatedly, especially in writing-first situations like roll calls and appointments.
- It is a Hawaiian name with real cultural weight behind the lani element, which some families outside Hawaii want to think about before choosing it.
- Rare enough that she will most likely be the only one wherever she goes — a quiet advantage most days, and occasionally a small chore.
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What they receive
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Keilani
Feminine · #727 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keilanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,300 people named Keilani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Keilani?
- Keilani is the most-used spelling in US records — 383 of the 788 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Keilany, Keylani, Keilanny, Keylany, Kheilany, Keilanii and Kheylani.
- How popular is the name Keilani in 2025?
- Keilani ranks #727 among US girl names in 2025, with 383 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keilani?
- About 1 in every 4,197 US girls born in 2025 was named Keilani — 383 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keilani with classmates?
- Keilani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keilani
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bristol#728 · Theodora#725 · Gwen#725 · Kathryn#729 · Iliana#730 · Bridget#724 · Abby#731 · Samira#723
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keilani? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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