Makai is a Hawaiian word made of ma, toward, and kai, sea, and means "toward the sea" or "seaward"; in Hawaii it is used every day to give directions, the opposite of mauka, toward the mountains. As a given name it belongs to the recent wave of Hawaiian-sounding boys' names on the mainland. Makai has been in the US top 1000 since 2005 and has climbed almost every year since 2015, reaching number 481 in 2025, its best rank so far.