Skai
A variant spelling of the English word "sky".
Name Census estimates that about 1,056 living Americans carry the first name Skai. It is a predominantly female name (92.9% of registrations). The average person named Skai today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Skai births was 2021 (103 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Skai. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Skai with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Skai is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 324,578 Americans
Peak year
2021
103 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,519
Tracked since 1993
Census
Skai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 587 people with the first name Skai, which placed it at #18,374 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
#18,374
National first-name rank
People counted
587
587 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
63.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Skai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Skai is Black at 63.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.4%) and White (11.4%). 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 Skai 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 Skai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American63.5% · 373
- Hispanic or Latino12.4% · 73
- White11.4% · 67
- Two or more races8.5% · 50
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Skai
Skai leans heavily female at 92.9% of total registrations, but 76 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Skai as a male name
- Ranked #10,722 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (11 births)
Skai as a female name
- Ranked #2,519 in 2024
- 71 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (92 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Skai leans strongly female. 515 people counted with this name were female (87.1%), compared with 76 male bearers (12.9%).
Popularity
Skai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Skai from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 491 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Skai 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 Skai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Skais live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. Florida, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Skai, while Missouri, Michigan, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Skai
The name Skai is believed to have its origins in the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia during the Viking Age (around 800-1050 AD). It is thought to be derived from the Old Norse word "skȳ," which means "cloud" or "sky."
In ancient Norse mythology, the sky was seen as a vast and powerful realm, governed by the gods and populated by various celestial beings. The name Skai may have been given to children as a way of honoring the sky and its mystical significance in Norse culture.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Skai can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, which are a collection of historical tales and legends written in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the Saga of Erik the Red, there is a character named Skai Eriksson, who was a Norse explorer and one of the first Europeans to set foot in North America.
Throughout history, the name Skai has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the most famous was Skai Labrie (1888-1968), a French-Canadian ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens in the early 20th century and was a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Another notable figure was Skai Remington (1921-2003), an American artist and painter who was known for her vibrant abstract works and was a prominent figure in the New York art scene of the mid-20th century.
In the field of literature, Skai Kincaid (1954-2008) was an American author and poet who wrote several acclaimed collections of poetry and was a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
In the realm of music, Skai Jackson (born 1992) is a contemporary American singer, actress, and author who rose to fame as a child star on the Disney Channel and has since released several successful albums and authored a book.
Finally, Skai Nielson (1946-2021) was a Danish engineer and entrepreneur who founded one of the world's leading manufacturers of wind turbines and was a pioneer in the field of renewable energy.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Skai, each making their mark in various fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of the name's legacy.
People
Skai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Skai as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Skai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Skai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,056 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Skai 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 324,578 US residents.
Is Skai a common name?
We classify Skai as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,064 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Skai most popular?
The single biggest year for Skai was 2021, when 103 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Skai is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Skai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 587 people with the name Skai, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,374 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 Skai 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 Skai?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Skai leans strongly female. 515 people counted with this name were female (87.1%), compared with 76 male bearers (12.9%). 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 Skai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Skai is Black at 63.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.4%) and White (11.4%). 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 Skai most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Skai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.5% (373 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 Skai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Skai a female name?
Yes, 92.9% of people registered as Skai 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 Skai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Skai 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 Skai 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 Skai?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.