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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Cai with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Cai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,323 people with the first name Cai, which placed it at #6,786 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,786
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
44.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cai is Asian/Pacific Islander at 44.1%. The next largest groups are Black (23.4%) and White (19.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cai described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander44.1% · 1,025
- Black or African American23.4% · 544
- White19.7% · 458
- Two or more races6.4% · 149
- Hispanic or Latino5.8% · 134
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 13
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)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cai on both sides of the split. Of the 2,320 people counted with this name, 1,229 were male (53.0%) and 1,091 were female (47.0%).
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.
How common was Cai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,323 people with the name Cai, or 0.77 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,786 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cai in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cai?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cai on both sides of the split. Of the 2,320 people counted with this name, 1,229 were male (53.0%) and 1,091 were female (47.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cai is Asian/Pacific Islander at 44.1%. The next largest groups are Black (23.4%) and White (19.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cai most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Cai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.1% (1,025 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Cai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cai in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cai can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How common is the name Cai?
See how many Americans are named Cai on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.