Given name & surname
Hai
“of the river”
Hai is used as a given name and a surname. One Vietnamese interpretation is “of the river.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Vietnamese interpretation is “of the river.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Vietnamese.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1975. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Hai through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 588
- 567 boys · 21 girls
- Most popular year
- 1983
- 50 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 8 in 2015. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 44 in 1983. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 11,511 as a first name in 2020; 1,104 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 3
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Hai
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Hai, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Hue
“resembling the lily flower”
84% boys · 16% girls
Tung
“resembling the coniferous tree”
>99% boys
Sen
“resembling the lotus flower” · “a wood sprite”
>99% boys
Westleigh
“from the western meadow”
>99% boys
Rosheen
“horse” · “fame”
>99% boys
Miyagawa
“shrine river”
—
Ashford
“from the ash-tree ford”
>99% boys
鶯
“bird”
—