Kao
Kao is a boy's name that peaked in 1981, when it was the 1,520th most popular in the United States. It is given to both boys and girls. In 2025 it ranked 8,910th. About 690 Kaos are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 35.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Kao boys named Kao
Girls and boys called Kao
years more girls than boys years more boys than girls
Both, throughout, without either side ever taking it over: 244 girls and 475 boys in all, and in 1995 the split was 15 to 15.
The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 16 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 719
- Estimated living today
- 690
- Median age today
- 35
- Peak year
- 1981
- Best rank
- 1,520th
- Rank in 2025
- 8,910th
- First recorded
- 1980
- Girls / boys
- 244 / 475
How old the living Kaos are
born that year still alive today
Of the 719 babies given the name since 1980, about 690 are alive — 96 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1990 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where Kao is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Kao is most concentrated in California (7.6×), Minnesota (4.7×), Wisconsin (3.6×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1981
The most popular boys’ names the year Kao peaked:
Kao elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| France boys | Kao | 20 | 2,341st |
| France girls | Kao | 10 | 3,505th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Related names
Kao against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.