Kai

Kai
Gender:	Male & Female
Origin:	Welsh, Scandinavian and Greek
Meaning:	Keeper of the keys; Earth

Kai (pronounced kye) is usually a male given name, however in later years it has been more common among females. It is of Welsh, Scandinavian and Greek origin, and its meaning is "keeper of the keys; earth". Variant of Kay. Kai is also a Hawaiian name meaning the sea. Kai is also the English pronunciation of the word shell in Japanese. Kai is a very rare male first name and a popular surname, according to the 1990 US census.

Kai may also refer to:

Real people

• Kai Wong, New York actor, producer, singer.
• Kai Budde, a famous player of the card game Magic: The Gathering
• Kai Krause, a pioneer in the field of computer applications
• Kai Ryssdal, radio journalist.
• Kai Winding, jazz trombonist
• Kai Rikardsen, Famous basketball player. Played for Norwegian national team
• Kai Hansen, heavy metal vocalist and guitarist for Helloween, Iron Saviour, and Gamma Ray
• Kai Kamada-Laws, played character Susi Fujiwara in a Australian childrens television series Ocean Star (2003)
• Kai Lee, a New York Production Designer/Art Director... Co-Founder of Worlds Away Productions Ltd.
• Kai, high priest to Pharaoh Khufu in ancient Egypt
• Kai Green, a master of tai chi and a philosopher
• Kai Schulte, a famous German DJ and Poker Player

Characters

People

• Sir Kay, a knight of the Round Table
• Bajoran Kai, the supreme religious figure of Bajor in the fictional Star Trek universe
• Kai (LEXX), a character in the science fiction television series LEXX
• Kai (Mortal Kombat), a Shaolin monk in the Mortal Kombat
• Kai Hiwatari, a character in the anime Beyblade
• Kai Shiden, a character in the anime Gundam
• Kai (Akira), the fictional character from the hit anime movie, Akira
• Kai Ozu, a character in Mahou Sentai Magiranger
• Kai Chen, a character in Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy
• Kai, Takato Matsuki's cousin in Digimon Tamers

Animals

• Kai the Horseclaw, a giant flightless bird who serves as a faithful mount in the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Deities

• Kai (Scandinavian god), a mythical Scandinavian god
• Kai (God), the god of the sun in the Lone Wolf series
• Kaiō, the name for the gods in the manga Dragon Ball Z

Titles

• Kai (Star Trek), the spirtual leader of the Bajoran faithful in the Star Trek universe

Places

• Ptolemaida, the current name for Kailar, a former Ottoman city in Northern Greece
• Kai, Yamanashi, a city in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
• Kai province, an old province that corresponds to Yamanashi Prefecture today
• Kai County, a county of Chongqing Municipality in China
• Kai, Kirov Oblast, village in Kirov Oblast, Russia

Organizations

• Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI), a South Korean national aerospace company
• Kikokushijo Academy International School (KAI School) in Tokyo, Japan
• Communist Workers International or Kommunistische Arbeiter-Internationale in German

Music and singing

• Kai (album), a remix album by Japanese group Dir en grey
• Kai (band), an R&B group
• Kai (singing), a kind of throat singing

Foreign languages

• KAI (suffix), for kaizo, a Japanese technical designation suffix
• kai (conjunction), the "and" conjunction in Greek
• Kai (abbreviation), a symbol used in Greek and Coptic
• Kai or Kekai, Hawaiian word for ocean.
• KAI can stand for Communist Workers International in German

Other

• Kaisho, a style of calligraphy also known as kaishu or regular script
• Kayı boyu, or Kai Boyu, a Turkish tribe to which the ruling family of the Ottoman Empire belonged
• Kailaras, a town and a nagar panchayat in Morena district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh

See also

• Kaira
• Kairi