Kawai

girls:

5 births since 2016

#5711 (0th percentile)

boys:

100 births since 2008

#4486 (2nd percentile)

overall:

105 births since 2008

#7634 (1st percentile)

Popularity Trends

The name Kawai is the #7,634 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 105 recorded births since 2008. This represents the 1.3% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 1.3% of all names). For boys, it ranks #4,486 (2.1% percentile) for all time with 100 births since 2008. For girls, it ranks #5,711 (0.1% percentile) for all time with 5 births since 2016.

Kawai first appeared in U.S. birth records in 2008 (2008 for boys and 2016 for girls). Birth data for Kawai is available in 11 out of the 16 years between 2008 and 2023 (11 years for boys and 1 years for girls). The Social Security Administration only reports birth data for years in which the name was given to at least five children of the same gender.

The name Kawai has been given almost exclusively to boys, with 95.2% of all recorded births being male.

For boys, Kawai reached its peak popularity in 2020, achieving the 1.2% percentile (ranked #890) with 9 births per million. The name was most common in 2020, with 9 births per million (ranked 1.2% percentile). Over the past 5 years, the popularity of this name for boys has been increasing. Currently, Kawai ranks #904 for boys (0.8% percentile) with 7 births per million, which is 75.8% of its peak share of births.

For girls, Kawai reached its peak popularity in 2016, achieving the 0.0% percentile (ranked #957) with 3 births per million. The name was most common in 2016, with 3 births per million (ranked 0.0% percentile). There have been no recorded female births with this name since 2016.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Kawai".

2008 2023 20082023

Key Statistics

Total Births
5
Peak Births
5
Peak Year
2016
First Recorded
2016
Peak Percentile
0.0%
Current Percentile
Peak Rank
#957
Current Rank
Female statistics
Total Births
100
Peak Births
16
Peak Year
2020
First Recorded
2008
Peak Percentile
1.2%
Current Percentile
0.8%
Peak Rank
#890
Current Rank
#904
Male statistics

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Kawai", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. This list excludes the 5 other name spellings that we've determined are also variations of "Kawhi" based on shared pronunciations. Click here for more details on names that are pronounced like Kawhi..

How to Pronounce Kawai

Our model has identified 4 different pronunciations for the name Kawai. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 52.4% confident that Kawai is pronounced as kuh-WAI, which has 2 syllables. The next most likely pronunciation is kah-WAI, at 26.2% confidence, with 2 syllables.

2
52.4%
2
26.2%
kuh-WAI (2 syllables)
52.4% confidence
K AH0 W AY1
kah-WAI (2 syllables)
26.2% confidence
K AA0 W AY1
kah-WAH-ee (3 syllables)
Verified
14.3% confidence
K AA0 W AA1 IY0
kuh-WAH-ee (3 syllables)
7.1% confidence
K AH0 W AA1 IY0

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Kawai? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Kawai. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Kawai, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like K AH0 W AY1) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

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