Mekhai
Masculine
Mekhai belongs to a small American family — Mekhi, Mekai, Mekhai — that appeared in the 1990s and has no traceable ancestry. It is usually described as a form of Michael, and the resemblance is real but the descent is not documented. Its peak is 2017.
How old is the name Mekhai?
Mekhai first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Mekhai alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 500 people named Mekhai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mekhai most popular?
Mekhai peaked in 2017, reaching #3071 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 3,072 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mekhi to Mekhai
Our story of Mekhai
The kh digraph is doing the same work here that it does in Khloe and Khali: it signals a foreign origin that the name may not have. In transliteration from Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu and Russian, kh represents a real consonant made at the back of the throat — the sound in loch — and English readers have learned to treat the letter combination as a marker of somewhere else. Borrowed into an American-made name it costs nothing phonetically, since English speakers say a plain k, and it buys a great deal visually. What makes Mekhai an interesting case is that the name it resembles, Michael, does have that consonant in Hebrew: Mikha'el is said with a genuine kh. So the marker may be pointing, by accident or otherwise, at something real.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Not established. The name is frequently connected to Hebrew Mikha'el, 'who is like God?', on the basis of the shared consonants; that connection is asserted rather than shown. A Swahili or African derivation is also offered without a source language. What can be described accurately is the shape: two syllables, a medial kh, and a final diphthong — a combination that entered American naming in the 1990s and has stayed rare.
How the name formed
- Mekhi
- Mekhai
Related forms: Mekhi · Mekai
Pronouncing Mekhai
muh-KY
Two syllables, stress at the end, with the second rhyming with sky and the h silent. A three-syllable meh-KAH-ee is occasionally produced by readers seeing the spelling cold.
Nicknames for Mekhai
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
- 1998
- Most boys named
- 201738 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3071reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%14 in 2025, from 12
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.
Mekhai in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mekhi in English — related form
- Mekai in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Maryland, California.
Mekhais among us
people named Mekhai are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Mekhai
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mekhai
- #6143
- Mekhai on the 2025 chart
- #901
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mekhai went to 14 boys in 2025, but Mekai is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 27, which makes it the 901st most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,242 places above the chart.
- Mekhai14
- Mekai13
About 1 boy in 63,262 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Mekhai 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 Pharoah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mekhai's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pharoah climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pharoah's path sketches the road Mekhai is walking now.
Mekhai 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
Mekhai beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mekhai in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kai is a very popular name available inside it as a short form.
- It is short and distinctive without being hard to say.
- The end-stress gives it a rhythm few English names have.
- Mekhi, Mekai and Mekhai all circulate, so records will drift.
- There is no documented meaning to give when asked.
- The silent h is dropped by most people writing from dictation.
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Mekhai
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mekhais are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Mekhai are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mekhai?
- Mekhai is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 27 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mekai.
- How popular is the name Mekhai in 2025?
- Mekhai ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mekhai?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Mekhai — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mekhai with classmates?
- Mekhai will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mekhai
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mekhai? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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