Kaia
Meaning
variant of Gaia, "earth"
The story
Kaia is a name three traditions hand over at once: our meaning records file it as a variant of Gaia, the Greek earth herself; Scandinavia has long used Kaja as a pet form of Katherine; and Hawaiian ears hear kai, the sea, in its first syllable. American families mostly hear a sound, and lately they hear it often: about 590 in the 1990s, 4,000 in the 2000s, 7,300 in the 2010s, and already 8,600 so far this decade, past the full 2010s with years to run. It climbs beside Kai, its one-syllable sibling, and inside the broader vowel-forward wave that carried Maia and Mya. In our records it is a girls' name at about 20,900 to 60. Earth in one tradition, sea in another, Katherine in a third: Kaia lets a family mean any of them, or simply mean the sound.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Kaia peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
275 people · the #20,279 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 16
Among people named Kaia living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 23 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Kaia
Most people given the name Kaia in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Kaia deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Kaia truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Kaia fits with your family’s names and surname.
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