Kimani
Feminine
Kimani is given to both — 1,699 girls and 1,758 boys since 1880. See Kimani as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Kimani is a Kikuyu name from Kenya, and in that tradition it is a real inherited name rather than a modern construction.
How old is the name Kimani?
Kimani first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Kimani alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 1,700 people named Kimani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kimani most popular?
Kimani peaked in 2009, reaching #1889 nationally. Today it ranks #4067, 2,178 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kimani
Kikuyu naming follows a strict order: the first son takes his paternal grandfather's name, the second his maternal grandfather's, and so on, which is why a small set of names recurs across generations in the same families. Kimani is one of them and is very widely borne in Kenya. Its American use is recent, for both sexes, and comes chiefly through the Jamaican Kymani rather than directly from Kenya.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Kikuyu Kimani is a well-established men's name whose derivation is not securely recorded; it belongs to the traditional Kikuyu naming cycle in which children are named for grandparents. A separate Jamaican Kymani draws on Swahili amani, peace, and the two are unrelated.
Pronouncing Kimani
kee-MAH-nee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Kimani
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 girls named
- 2008111 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1889reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- −23.9%35 in 2025, from 46
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.
Kimani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kimani in Kikuyu — same name
- Amani in Swahili — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, North Carolina, Florida.
Kimanis among us
people named Kimani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 45,922 born in 2025 was named Kimani
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kimani
- #4067
- Kimani on the 2025 chart
- #887
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kimani went to 35 girls in 2025, but Kymani is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 73, which makes it the 887th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,180 places above the chart.
- Kymani38
- Kimani35
About 1 girl in 22,017 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 45,922 for Kimani 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 Revonda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kimani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Revonda climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Revonda's path sketches the road Kimani is walking now.
Kimani 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 Kimani is headed
Kimani 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.
Kimani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kimani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuinely inherited Kenyan name with a real naming system behind it.
- Kim and Mani are both usable short forms with their own records.
- Open vowels make it easy to say in most languages.
- It is a men's name in Kikuyu, and Kenyan speakers will read it that way.
- Kimani and Kymani are separate names from separate places and get merged.
- It is used for both sexes in America, so forms may guess wrong.
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What they receive
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Kimani
Feminine · #4067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kimanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Kimani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kimani?
- Kimani is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kymani is the more common one — 38 births in 2025 against 35 for Kimani.
- How popular is the name Kimani in 2025?
- Kimani ranks #4067 among US girl names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kimani?
- About 1 in every 45,922 US girls born in 2025 was named Kimani — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kimani with classmates?
- Kimani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kimani
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eli#4067 · Peace#4067 · Medina#4067 · Darlin#4067 · Anja#4067 · Sparrow#4067 · Liani#4067 · Salina#4067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kimani? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kimani and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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