Kekoa
Of Hawaiian origin, meaning "the brave one".
Name Census estimates that about 1,980 living Americans carry the first name Kekoa. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Kekoa today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kekoa births was 2017 (75 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kekoa. 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
2.0K
~ 1 in 173,108 Americans
Peak year
2017
75 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,604
Tracked since 1972
Census
Kekoa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,543 people with the first name Kekoa, which placed it at #9,134 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
#9,134
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,543 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Two or more races
41.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kekoa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kekoa is Two or More Races at 41.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (28.5%) and Hispanic (19.2%). 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 Kekoa 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 Kekoa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Two or more races41.2% · 636
- Asian and Pacific Islander28.5% · 439
- Hispanic or Latino19.2% · 296
- White8.4% · 130
- Black or African American1.9% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Kekoa
Kekoa leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 22 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kekoa as a male name
- Ranked #2,604 in 2024
- 51 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (75 births)
Kekoa as a female name
- Ranked #16,804 in 2002
- 5 female births in 2002
- Peak: 2001 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kekoa leans strongly male. 1,492 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 49 female bearers (3.2%).
Popularity
Kekoa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kekoa 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 623 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kekoa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kekoa 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 Kekoa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kekoas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Hawaii, California, Washington recorded the most babies named Kekoa, while Arizona, Oregon, Utah recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 161 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kekoa
The name Kekoa has its origins in the Hawaiian language and culture. It is a masculine given name that emerged in the ancient Hawaiian islands, likely during the era before Western contact and colonization.
Kekoa is derived from the Hawaiian words "ke" meaning "the" and "koa" meaning "warrior" or "soldier". The name can be translated to mean "the warrior" or "the soldier", reflecting the historical significance of courage and strength in Hawaiian culture.
In ancient Hawaiian mythology and legends, the name Kekoa may have been associated with deities, demigods, or legendary figures known for their bravery and prowess in battle. However, there is limited historical evidence of the name appearing in specific ancient texts or religious scriptures from that era.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Kekoa was Kekoa, a high-ranking chief and advisor to King Kamehameha I, who ruled the Hawaiian Islands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Kekoa played a significant role in the unification of the Hawaiian Islands under Kamehameha's rule.
Another notable figure with the name Kekoa was Kekoa Kama, a Hawaiian musician and composer who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was known for his contributions to the development of Hawaiian music and his compositions that celebrated Hawaiian culture and traditions.
In the realm of Hawaiian sports, Kekoa Cazimero was a prominent figure in the late 20th century. He was a professional surfer and lifeguard, known for his skills in the ocean and his dedication to promoting water safety and ocean conservation.
Another individual named Kekoa was Kekoa Beaupre, a Hawaiian artist and sculptor who lived in the 20th century. His works often featured traditional Hawaiian motifs and celebrated the beauty of the islands and their cultural heritage.
Kekoa Kaluhiwa was a Hawaiian activist and community leader who fought for the rights and recognition of Native Hawaiians in the late 20th century. He played a significant role in raising awareness about Hawaiian sovereignty and the preservation of Hawaiian culture and traditions.
While the name Kekoa continues to be used in modern times, its historical roots and associations with Hawaiian culture, bravery, and strength remain deeply embedded in its meaning and significance.
People
Kekoa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kekoa 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
Kekoa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kekoa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,980 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kekoa 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 173,108 US residents.
Is Kekoa a common name?
We classify Kekoa as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,013 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kekoa most popular?
The single biggest year for Kekoa was 2017, when 75 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kekoa is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kekoa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,543 people with the name Kekoa, or 0.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,134 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 Kekoa 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 Kekoa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kekoa leans strongly male. 1,492 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 49 female bearers (3.2%). 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 Kekoa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kekoa is Two or More Races at 41.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (28.5%) and Hispanic (19.2%). 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 Kekoa most often in the Census?
Two or More Races is the largest reported group for people named Kekoa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.2% (636 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 Kekoa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kekoa a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Kekoa 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 Kekoa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kekoa 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 Kekoa 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 share the name Kekoa?
Want to know how many Americans are named Kekoa? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.