Koa
- Pronunciation
- [Koa]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- "Brave, Bold, Fearless."
- Origin
- Hawaiian
About the Name Koa
Koa descends from the Hawaiian language meaning "brave," "bold," "fearless," or "warrior." The name also refers to the iconic Hawaiian koa tree (Acacia koa), one of the most-iconic native Hawaiian trees, used for centuries by native Hawaiians for canoe-building and fine woodwork. The koa wood is highly prized and is used continuously for guitars, ukuleles, and luxury furniture.
Notable bearers include American basketball player Koa Peat; American football player Koa Misi (born 1987, the American NFL linebacker); contemporary Hawaiian-American actor Koa Pomaikai; and the contemporary fictional Koa of various contemporary Hawaiian-themed novels.
Koa's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 boys' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. The name has been driven primarily by Hawaiian-American naming and the broader American taste for distinctive Hawaiian-language boys' names alongside Kai and Makoa. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the Hawaiian-cultural register with the in-built brave/warrior etymological register, the iconic koa-tree natural anchor, and the compact one-syllable structure with the distinctive K-O consonant rhythm. The name reads as distinctly Hawaiian-American. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — the rare Koa-bear and Koi each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Koa and Coa have their own SSA tracking. International forms include the original Hawaiian koa.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Koa
US Popularity History (2017–2025)
Annual US births named Koa by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 1,281 boys named Koa (boy rank #269 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Koa Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Koa the strongest states are Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | #76 | 146 |
| 2 | Idaho | #245 | 33 |
| 3 | Nevada | #288 | 92 |
| 4 | New Mexico | #297 | 39 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | #330 | 61 |
| 6 | Utah | #339 | 138 |
| 7 | Kentucky | #351 | 44 |
| 8 | California | #355 | 1,059 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #363 | 66 |
| 10 | Michigan | #371 | 75 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #649 | 98 |
| 2 | Maryland | #592 | 60 |
| 3 | Indiana | #574 | 84 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #574 | 58 |
| 5 | North Carolina | #552 | 187 |
| 6 | Minnesota | #551 | 39 |
| 7 | Texas | #547 | 395 |
| 8 | Ohio | #543 | 140 |
| 9 | Missouri | #539 | 63 |
| 10 | Illinois | #529 | 105 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Koa in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Koa?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Koa to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Koa against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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