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Kai vs Kaiyr

American parents have registered 78,710 Kais since 1880, against 115 Kaiyrs. Kai is still ahead, with 4,002 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kai against Kaiyr, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kai Kaiyr

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Kai has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1926 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2024, when Kai had 4,515 and Kaiyr had 64.

Side by side

  Kai Kaiyr
Total US births 78,710115
Most in one year 5,73264
Babies in 2025 4,00210
Estimated living today 78,000110
Median age today 81
Peak year 20222024
Best rank 59th boys2,236th boys
Rank in 2025 93rd7,679th
First recorded 19262023
Girls / boys 8,478 / 70,2320 / 115

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Kais alive today are over 8; half the Kaiyrs are over 1. That is 7 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Kai and Kaiyr.