Halei
A Hawaiian name meaning "the beautiful path" or "wreath of flowers".
Name Census estimates that about 367 living Americans carry the first name Halei. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Halei today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Halei births was 2000 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Halei. 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.
People living today
367
~ 1 in 933,936 Americans
Peak year
2000
32 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2017 SSA rank
#14,757
Tracked since 1987
Census
Halei in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 364 people with the first name Halei, which placed it at #25,851 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
#25,851
National first-name rank
People counted
364
364 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Halei
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halei is White at 55.5%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Two or More Races (10.4%). 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 Halei 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 Halei at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.5% · 202
- Black or African American25.5% · 93
- Two or more races10.4% · 38
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Halei: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Halei from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 200 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Halei remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Halei 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 Halei during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Halei
The given name Halei is of Hawaiian origin and dates back to the pre-colonial era in the Hawaiian Islands. It is derived from the Hawaiian word "hale," which means "house" or "home." The name is believed to have been used as a name for children in traditional Hawaiian families, signifying the importance of the home and family unit in Hawaiian culture.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Halei can be found in the traditional Hawaiian chants and oral histories, which were passed down through generations of Hawaiian storytellers and historians. These chants and stories often featured characters with the name Halei, although specific details about their identities and the time periods they lived in are often lost to history.
As Hawaiian culture and language faced threats from colonization and westernization in the 19th century, the name Halei became less common. However, it experienced a resurgence in popularity in the late 20th century as part of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, which aimed to revive and preserve traditional Hawaiian practices and language.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Halei was Halei Ka'upena, a renowned Hawaiian navigator and wayfinder who lived in the late 18th century. Ka'upena was known for his expertise in traditional Polynesian navigation techniques, which relied on reading the stars, ocean currents, and other natural signs to navigate across vast distances in the Pacific Ocean.
Another notable figure with the name Halei was Halei Ulumahihi, a Hawaiian kahuna (priest) and healer who lived in the early 19th century. Ulumahihi was renowned for his knowledge of traditional Hawaiian medicine and healing practices, and he played a significant role in preserving and passing down this knowledge to future generations.
In the realm of Hawaiian music and dance, Halei Kealoha was a prominent figure in the early 20th century. Kealoha was a skilled hula dancer and kumu hula (hula teacher) who helped to preserve and promote the traditional Hawaiian art form during a time when it faced suppression and marginalization.
More recently, Halei Silva-Fulcher is a contemporary Hawaiian artist and activist who has gained recognition for her multimedia work, which explores themes of indigenous identity, environmental justice, and cultural preservation. Silva-Fulcher's work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and galleries both in Hawai'i and internationally.
Halei Warshaw is another contemporary figure with the name, who has made contributions to the field of environmental sustainability and conservation in Hawai'i. Warshaw has worked with various organizations and initiatives aimed at protecting and preserving the islands' natural resources and ecosystems.
People
Halei + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Halei as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Halei: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Halei?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 367 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Halei 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 933,936 US residents.
Is Halei a common name?
We classify Halei as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 375 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Halei most popular?
The single biggest year for Halei was 2000, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Halei is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Halei in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 364 people with the name Halei, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,851 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 Halei 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 Halei?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halei leans strongly female. 358 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 5 male bearers (1.4%). 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 Halei?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halei is White at 55.5%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Two or More Races (10.4%). 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 Halei most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Halei in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.5% (202 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 Halei in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Halei a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Halei in the SSA data are female. 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 Halei still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Halei 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 Halei 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 many people are called Halei?
You can see how many people have the name Halei on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.