Kaiulani
A Hawaiian feminine name meaning "heavenly lei" or "royal garland".
Name Census estimates that about 434 living Americans carry the first name Kaiulani. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kaiulani today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaiulani births was 2011 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaiulani. 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
434
~ 1 in 789,757 Americans
Peak year
2011
22 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,563
Tracked since 1977
Census
Kaiulani in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 369 people with the first name Kaiulani, which placed it at #25,627 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
#25,627
National first-name rank
People counted
369
369 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Two or more races
31.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaiulani
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaiulani is Two or More Races at 31.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.6%) and Hispanic (20.3%). 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 Kaiulani 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 Kaiulani at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Two or more races31.2% · 115
- Asian and Pacific Islander26.6% · 98
- Hispanic or Latino20.3% · 75
- White13.6% · 50
- Black or African American7.0% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 5
Popularity
Kaiulani: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaiulani from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 149 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kaiulani remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaiulani 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 Kaiulani during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaiulanis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaiulani
Kaiulani is a Hawaiian name with a rich history and cultural significance. It originated from the Hawaiian language, which is part of the Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.
The name Kaiulani is a combination of two Hawaiian words: "kai," meaning sea or ocean, and "ulani," meaning highest or heavenly. Together, the name Kaiulani can be interpreted as "highest or heavenly sea" or "sea of the highest rank."
The origins of the name can be traced back to the Hawaiian monarchy and aristocracy. It was a name given to members of the Hawaiian royal family and nobility, reflecting their high status and connection to the ocean, which played a crucial role in Hawaiian culture and mythology.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kaiulani is Princess Kaiulani (1875-1899), who was the daughter of Princess Miriam Likelike and Archibald Scott Cleghorn. Princess Kaiulani was heir to the Hawaiian throne and became a prominent figure in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement against the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Another notable figure with the name Kaiulani was Kaiulani Kanoa-Martin (1956-2010), a Hawaiian singer-songwriter and actress. She was known for her contributions to the Hawaiian Renaissance and her efforts in preserving and promoting Hawaiian culture through her music and performances.
In ancient Hawaiian texts and chants, the name Kaiulani is associated with the sea and its power, beauty, and importance in Hawaiian life. It is often used to describe the ocean's majesty and its connection to the Hawaiian people.
The name Kaiulani has also been used by notable Hawaiian authors and poets, such as Kaiulani Kauakahi (1902-1976), a Hawaiian writer and educator who wrote about Hawaiian culture and traditions.
Other historical figures who bore the name Kaiulani include Kaiulani Mokuahi (1887-1958), a Hawaiian educator and activist, and Kaiulani Cooke (1882-1922), a member of the prominent Cooke family in Hawaii.
Overall, the name Kaiulani has a rich cultural and historical significance in Hawaiian culture, representing the connection between the Hawaiian people and the ocean, as well as the high status and nobility associated with the name.
People
Kaiulani + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaiulani as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kaiulani: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaiulani?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 434 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaiulani 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 789,757 US residents.
Is Kaiulani a common name?
We classify Kaiulani as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 443 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaiulani most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaiulani was 2011, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaiulani is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaiulani in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 369 people with the name Kaiulani, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,627 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 Kaiulani 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 Kaiulani?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaiulani leans strongly female. 362 people counted with this name were female (98.4%), compared with 6 male bearers (1.6%). 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 Kaiulani?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaiulani is Two or More Races at 31.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.6%) and Hispanic (20.3%). 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 Kaiulani most often in the Census?
Two or More Races is the largest reported group for people named Kaiulani in the 2020 Census, accounting for 31.2% (115 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 Kaiulani in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaiulani a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaiulani 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 Kaiulani still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaiulani 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 Kaiulani 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 Americans are named Kaiulani?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.