Nalani is a Hawaiian name made of the plural article na and lani, so it means "the heavens" or "the skies"; it is a sibling of Kalani and Leilani. Like those names it reached the mainland through Hawaii's popular culture and the taste for soft, vowel-rich girls' names. Nalani entered the US top 1000 in 2016 and has climbed to number 414 in 2025, its highest rank yet.