Kairo

How to say it

/ˈkaɪ.roʊ/

What it means

Anglicized respelling of Cairo, the capital of Egypt, from the Arabic al-Qāhirah ('the victorious one'). As a given name it surged with the broader -ai and Africa-referent wave of the 2010s.

Kairo is an anglicized respelling of Cairo, the Egyptian capital. The Arabic name al-Qāhirah means 'the victorious one' or 'the conqueror,' named for the planet Mars (al-najm al-qāhir, 'the conquering star'), which was rising at the moment the Fatimid caliph Al-Mu'izz founded the city in 969. As a given name Kairo and Cairo (both spellings) surfaced in US naming in the 2010s with the -ai cluster (Kai, Kaia, Kairo, Cairo). Beyoncé and Jay-Z named their first child Blue Ivy but not Cairo; the celebrity-baby driver here is more diffuse, including hip-hop and broader African-referent naming. The Kairo spelling entered the US top 1000 in 2017. Common short: Kai.

Heads-up notes

• Spelling

  Cairo (the city's English spelling) and Kairo (the K-respelling) are the same name; the K reads as more stylized and modern American.

Who's worn it

Historical figures, characters, and public faces who share the name. The cultural surface, for whatever weight you want to give it.

• Cairo (city) Capital of Egypt, founded 969 by the Fatimid caliphate

Spelling variants

• Cairo
• Kyro

Names with the same feeling

• Kai Sea, or 'keeper of the keys'
• Cairo The victorious
• Atlas Bearer, enduring
• Rio River
• Zion Zion (the hill of Jerusalem)

See Kairo from another angle