Cai
Chinese masculine name derived from archaic words meaning "glory" or "great".
Name Census estimates that about 1,845 living Americans carry the first name Cai. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Cai today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cai births was 2022 (131 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cai. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Cai is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 185,775 Americans
Peak year
2022
131 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,902
Tracked since 1989
Gender
Gender distribution for Cai
Cai is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,862 total registrations, 1,381 (74.2%) were male and 481 (25.8%) were female.
Cai as a male name
- Ranked #1,902 in 2024
- 83 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (108 births)
Cai as a female name
- Ranked #6,415 in 2024
- 18 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (38 births)
Popularity
Cai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cai from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 852 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Cai remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cai by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cais live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. Texas, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Cai, while Ohio, Michigan, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cai
The name Cai has its origins in Welsh culture, stemming from the Welsh word "cai," which means "keeper" or "protector." This name was prevalent in Wales during the Middle Ages and has been traced back to as early as the 6th century AD.
Cai was a popular name among the ancient Britons, and it appears in various Welsh legends and myths. One notable reference is the character Cai Hir (Cai the Tall) in the Arthurian legends, who was a close companion and knight of King Arthur.
In the 12th century, the name Cai was recorded in the Brut y Brenhinedd (Chronicle of the Kings), a Welsh language manuscript that details the history of the British Isles. This early written record highlights the longstanding use of the name in Welsh culture.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Cai was Cai ab Idwal (born around 1050), a Welsh prince and heir to the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Another notable figure was Cai ap Bleddyn (died 1109), a Welsh nobleman who fought against the Norman conquest of Wales.
Throughout history, the name Cai has been borne by various notable individuals, including Cai Hir Holland (1618-1672), a Welsh poet and writer; Cai Withrow (1814-1895), an American pioneer and settler in Oregon; Cai Guo-Qiang (born 1957), a renowned Chinese artist known for his explosive artworks; and Cai Yingwen (born 1962), a Taiwanese politician and the first woman elected as President of Taiwan in 2016.
Despite its Welsh origins, the name Cai has also gained popularity in other cultures, such as China and Taiwan, where it is often rendered as 蔡 or 蓋 in Chinese characters, with variations in pronunciation and meaning.
People
Cai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cai as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,845 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cai going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 185,775 US residents.
Is Cai a common name?
We classify Cai as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,862 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cai most popular?
The single biggest year for Cai was 2022, when 131 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cai is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Cai a male name?
Yes, 74.2% of people registered as Cai in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.