Name
Kai
Meaning
Kai is a unisex name of Hawaiian origin meaning “sea”.
Kai means sea in Hawaiian, and the same syllable happens to exist in Japanese, where one common written form also means sea, plus Scandinavian, Maori, and Chinese traditions with meanings of their own. That accidental universality has made it one of the great global names of the century, used everywhere for boys and increasingly for girls.
A US top-100 boys' name in the 2020s and a chart regular across Europe.
Popularity in the United States
Girls
Ranked #940 in 2023 · peak #768 in 2021
Boys
Ranked #93 in 2025 · peak #59 in 2022
Data: US Social Security Administration, top-1000 ranks.
At a glance
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Questions
Kai is a unisex name of Hawaiian origin meaning “sea”. Kai means sea in Hawaiian, and the same syllable happens to exist in Japanese, where one common written form also means sea, plus Scandinavian, Maori, and Chinese traditions with meanings of their own.
Kai is a unisex name, used for both boys and girls. It is a US top-100 boys' name in the 2020s and a chart regular across Europe.
The name Kai comes from Hawaiian. Kai means sea in Hawaiian, and the same syllable happens to exist in Japanese, where one common written form also means sea, plus Scandinavian, Maori, and Chinese traditions with meanings of their own. That accidental universality has made it one of the great global names of the century, used everywhere for boys and increasingly for girls.
Kai is pronounced KYE.
More names that mean ocean
Names that share this meaning.