Koa
Feminine · “warrior”
Koa is given to both — 846 girls and 7,702 boys since 1880. See Koa as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Koa is the Hawaiian word for both a warrior and a tree — the acacia the islands built their canoes from, which is why the two senses are the same word.
How old is the name Koa?
Koa first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Koa is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Koa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Koa most popular?
Koa peaked in 2024, reaching #1559 nationally. Today it ranks #1587, 28 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Koa appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From koa to Koa
The story of Koa
Koa trees grow only in Hawaii and their wood was reserved to chiefs for canoes, surfboards and weapons. The word is ordinary Hawaiian for a warrior. It entered American given-name use for both sexes from the 2000s alongside the wider Hawaiian wave, and Koa appears in the registers rising through the 2010s.
Meaning
warrior; koa tree
From the Hawaiian koa, meaning 'brave' or 'warrior' and also naming Acacia koa, the largest native tree of the islands. Its wood built the great voyaging canoes and the surfboards of the chiefs, which is why courage and the tree share a word. The meaning is undisputed.
How the name formed
- koa
- Koa
Related forms: Koa · Koa
Pronouncing Koa
KO-ah
Two syllables, both vowels given full value. Hawaiian does not reduce either one.
Nicknames for Koa
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2024136 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1559reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −2.9%132 in 2025, from 136
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.
Koa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Koa in Hawaiian — same name
- Koa in Maori — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Koas among us
people named Koa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 12,176 born in 2025 was named Koa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Koa
- #1587
- Koa on the 2025 chart
- #771
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Koa went to 132 girls in 2025, but Koah and Coa are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 189, which makes it the 771st most-given girls’ name of the year — 816 places above the chart.
- Koa132
- Koah51
- Coa6
About 1 girl in 8,504 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 12,176 for Koa 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 Lizzette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Koa's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lizzette climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lizzette's path sketches the road Koa is walking now.
Koa is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Koa is headed
Koa is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 73% more babies given the name than today. 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.
Koa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Koa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The warrior-and-tree double meaning is concrete and genuinely elegant.
- It is a living Hawaiian word rather than a coinage.
- Three letters, two syllables, and never misheard.
- It is thoroughly unisex in Hawaiian and in American use.
- It is very short and can be swallowed by a long surname.
- English speakers may collapse it to one syllable.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Koa
Feminine · #1587 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Koas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Koa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Koa?
- Koa is the most-used spelling in US records — 132 of the 189 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Koah and Coa.
- How popular is the name Koa in 2025?
- Koa ranks #1587 among US girl names in 2025, with 132 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Koa?
- About 1 in every 12,176 US girls born in 2025 was named Koa — 132 in all.
- Will my child share the name Koa with classmates?
- Koa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Koa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sedona#1587 · Lidia#1587 · Kinsleigh#1587 · Perla#1587 · Lani#1592 · Aislinn#1592 · Lailah#1592 · Ever#1592
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Koa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Koa and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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