Kai

Wayne and Colleen Rooney have called their son Kai Wayne Rooney. The Guardian finds the name exotic:

At first glance the Rooney’s choice of the name Kai might seem to be another footballing exoticism. In Japanese it means “big water” and in Hawaiian “the ocean”. In Maori it means “to eat” which could draw some predictable ribbing given his father’s famously sturdy build.

In fact Kai is an increasingly popular name for children of both sexes: it came 68th in the Office for National Statistics top 100 names for 2008.

The Daily Mirror is even more confused.

* It’s possible, although not likely, that Wayne and Colleen named their firstborn after Natasha Kai, a female US footballer who plays for Sky Blue FC as well as the USA national soccer team.

* Kai is a kind of throat singing practiced in the Altai Republic, Russia.

Can it have been that common German name? Still, who’s to guess where it came from and how they’ll pronounce it.

5 thoughts on “Kai

      • Is the Maori word not Kia, as in kia ora, and pronounced as it is written? If so, the BBC (see BBC Magazine of today) is also confused as it assumes the name Kai comes from the Maori. But perhaps I am the one who is confused!

  1. I actually quite like the name and don’t find it THAT unusual! It is, i think a contemporary (at least in Europe) and not traditional name, but that only goes to show the progression of our culture, a good thing surely?

    • Absolutely! I think as a famous footballer you have to have an unusual name, and this is a good one (better than Wayne – and what about David Beckham’s kids and Agassi/Graf’s – they’re a bit weird).

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