Khai
Masculine · “triumph' in Vietnamese”
Khai is given to both — 3,184 boys and 486 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Khai is one syllable that lands in several languages at once: a Vietnamese given name written Khải, a familiar short form in Malay and Arabic-speaking families, and a spelling that sits a half-step away from the widely known Kai. It is said in a breath — one open vowel, no consonant to trip on — and it has been quietly present in American records for decades before the recent lift in its use.
How old is the name Khai?
Khai first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Khai is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,200 people named Khai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Khai most popular?
Khai peaked in 2023, reaching #723 nationally. Today it ranks #1176, 453 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Khai
The Vietnamese Khải belongs to a large family of given names drawn from Sino-Vietnamese characters, the same shared stock of written meanings that gives Chinese its Kǎi (凱). Along an entirely separate road, Khai arrived in English-speaking countries as the clipped, spoken form of Arabic-rooted names beginning Khair-, common across Malaysia, Indonesia and Muslim communities more widely. The two traditions met at the same four letters in American records, where the name has been present since the late twentieth century and has grown steadily since. Its strongest footholds are in states with large Vietnamese and Southeast Asian communities, which fits the older of its two paths.
Meaningscholars disagree
'triumph' in Vietnamese, or 'good' by way of Arabic khayr — depending on the family
In Vietnamese, Khải (from the Sino-Vietnamese character 凱) carries the sense of triumph or victory; the separate word khai (開) means to open or to begin. In Malay and Indonesian usage, Khai is the everyday short form of names built on the Arabic root khayr, 'good' or 'blessing' — Khairul, Khairuddin, Khairiyah. Which reading applies depends entirely on the household, and all of them are genuinely in use.
Pronouncing Khai
KY
Rhymes with sky. In Vietnamese, Khải has an aspirated kh and a dipping hỏi tone; in English it is regularly said the same as Kai, and most families using it here accept that.
Nicknames for Khai
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
- 1977
- Most boys named
- 2023367 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #723reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −27.7%175 in 2025, from 242
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.
Khai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Khải in Vietnamese — same name
- Kai (凱) in Chinese (Mandarin) — related form
- Khairul in Malay — related form
- Khayr in Arabic — related form
- Kai in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Khais among us
people named Khai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,760 born in 2025 was named Khai
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Khai
- #1176
- Khai on the 2025 chart
- #85
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Khai went to 175 boys in 2025, but Kai and Cai are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 4,031, which makes it the 85th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,091 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 boy in 424 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,760 for Khai 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 Durrell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Khai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Durrell climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Durrell's path sketches the road Khai is walking now.
Khai 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 Khai is headed
Khai looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Khai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Khai in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and one vowel sound — easy to call across a playground and easy for a small child to say and write early.
- Works in more than one language community at once: Vietnamese, Malay and Arabic-rooted households all use it without adaptation.
- Sounds identical to the widely known Kai, so Americans hear it correctly the first time even when they have not seen it written.
- Short enough to sit comfortably in front of a long surname, with no rhythm clash.
- The spelling will be corrected to Kai for life — on registers, coffee cups and class lists. The sound survives that; the h does not always.
- The meaning depends on which tradition it comes to you through, so be ready to answer 'what does it mean?' with your own family's version rather than a single dictionary line.
- US records list it overwhelmingly for boys, but the spelling has also been given to girls, including in a widely reported celebrity family in the early 2020s. That is worth knowing rather than worrying about.
- With so few carriers around, a child named Khai will likely be the only one anywhere in the school — which some children enjoy and others notice.
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What they receive
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Khai
Masculine · #1176 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Khais are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,200 people named Khai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Khai?
- Khai is one of 3 recorded spellings. Kai is the more common one — 3,768 births in 2025 against 175 for Khai.
- How popular is the name Khai in 2025?
- Khai ranks #1176 among US boy names in 2025, with 175 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Khai?
- About 1 in every 9,760 US boys born in 2025 was named Khai — 175 in all.
- Will my child share the name Khai with classmates?
- Khai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Khai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Arham#1176 · Wylie#1176 · Talon#1176 · Ash#1176 · Maxton#1176 · Deandre#1176 · Steele#1183 · Oren#1183
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Khai? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Khai and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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