Makai
Masculine · “toward the sea (Hawaiian)”
Makai is given to both — 9,298 boys and 311 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Makai is a real word in a living language: in Hawaiʻi, directions are given not by north and south but by makai, toward the sea, and mauka, toward the mountains. It sits on the tongue in two easy beats, ending on the open vowel of kai, and it carries the well-known Kai inside it without needing to be shortened at all.
How old is the name Makai?
Makai first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Makai is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 9,200 people named Makai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Makai most popular?
Makai peaked in 2025, reaching #481 nationally. Today it ranks #481, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Makai appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From kai (Hawaiian: sea) to Makai
The story of Makai
Makai begins not as a name but as a direction. Hawaiian orients itself by the island rather than the compass, so a house, a turn or a beach is described as makai — on the ocean side — while mauka points inland toward the mountains. The word is still used exactly that way in everyday Hawaiian English, which is unusual for a name: most name meanings are locked in a dead or distant form of a language, and this one is spoken out loud every day in its original sense. Its life as a given name is a recent, mostly mainland American development, and the wave is young enough that nearly everyone carrying it is still a child or a young adult.
Meaning
toward the sea (Hawaiian)
Hawaiian ma, 'toward, at', with kai, 'sea, sea water'. The word itself is not in doubt — it is ordinary daily speech and appears on signs and in directions throughout Hawaiʻi. What the record does not show is which road any individual family took to it: the Hawaiian word, or simply the sound, which sits close to Micah and Mikael without descending from either.
How the name formed
- kaiHawaiian: sea
- makaiHawaiian: toward the sea
- Makaigiven name
Related forms: Kai
Pronouncing Makai
muh-KYE
Stress on the second syllable, which rhymes with 'eye'. In Hawaiian the first syllable is fuller — closer to mah-KYE. Expect occasional muh-KAY or MAK-eye from people reading it cold.
Nicknames for Makai
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
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 2025626 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #481reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +12.0%626 in 2025, from 559
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.
Makai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kai in Hawaiian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, Texas.
Makais among us
people named Makai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,729 born in 2025 was named Makai
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 Raymon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Makai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Raymon climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Raymon's path sketches the road Makai is walking now.
Makai 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 Makai is headed
Makai should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Makai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Makai in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, five letters, no silent letters — short enough that it never needs shortening.
- The meaning is exact and easy to state: toward the sea, in a language where the word is still in everyday use.
- Contains Kai, a short form people already know and can spell without help.
- Only simple vowel sounds, so it survives being said by speakers of most other languages.
- The stress trips people up. Some will say muh-KAY or MAK-eye on first sight, and correcting it becomes a small lifelong habit.
- It is a Hawaiian word with a living, place-specific sense, and some Hawaiian speakers feel strongly about how it is used off-island. Worth knowing that going in, rather than being surprised by it later.
- Look-alike spellings — Makhai, McKai, Makaio — plus the closeness to Micah mean the name will often be spelled back at you wrong.
- A child with this name will most likely be the only one in the class, which cuts both ways: no surname initial needed, but also no one who already knows how it goes.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Makai
Masculine · #481 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Makais are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,200 people named Makai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Makai in 2025?
- Makai ranks #481 among US boy names in 2025, with 626 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Makai?
- About 1 in every 2,729 US boys born in 2025 was named Makai — 626 in all.
- Will my child share the name Makai with classmates?
- Makai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Makai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adan#482 · Ruben#480 · Kasen#483 · Asa#483 · Cassian#479 · Noel#478 · Hezekiah#485 · Samson#477
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Makai? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Makai and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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