Aiko
Feminine · “child of love”
Aiko is given to both — 1,785 girls and 101 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Aiko is Japanese, and like most Japanese names its meaning depends on how it is written rather than how it is said. The same two syllables can be several different names on paper — which is not a flaw in the name but a feature of the language.
How old is the name Aiko?
Aiko first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Aiko alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,300 people named Aiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aiko most popular?
Aiko peaked in 1919, reaching #1155 nationally. Today it ranks #2719, 1,564 places below that high. See the whole 1919 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Aiko
The -ko ending has been the ordinary marking of a Japanese woman's name for well over a thousand years — it belonged to court women in the Heian period long before it was common further down — and names formed with it were the standard for generations. Aiko reached United States records early, with Japanese immigration to Hawaii and the West Coast in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it has been in continuous use in Japanese-American families since. In Japan itself the -ko ending has gone quiet among younger parents, so the name now reads differently in the two countries.
Meaningscholars disagree
child of love — in its most common writing
Japanese names are written in kanji, and the sound aiko carries more than one set. 愛子 is ai, 'love', and ko, 'child', and it is the most common. 藍子 is ai, 'indigo', with the same ko. Others exist. The -ko ending is a very old and very standard way of forming a woman's name in Japanese; it means 'child' and carries no diminutive sense at all. Which Aiko a person is depends entirely on the characters on her family register.
Pronouncing Aiko
AH-ee-koh
Three light beats in Japanese — a-i-ko — with no stress accent of the English kind and all vowels pure. American English compresses it to EYE-koh, which is close enough that it passes everywhere.
Nicknames for Aiko
Limited
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 202377 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1155reached in 1919
- Change vs 2023
- −18.2%63 in 2025, from 77
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aiko in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 愛子 in Japanese — transliteration
- 藍子 in Japanese — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, New York.
Aikos among us
people named Aiko are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 25,512 born in 2025 was named Aiko
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Brownie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aiko's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Brownie climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Brownie's path sketches the road Aiko is walking now.
Aiko sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aiko is headed
Aiko looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 32% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Aiko beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aiko in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, no ambiguity in the Roman spelling, and English speakers manage it immediately.
- A standard Japanese name with a long record rather than a recent or invented one.
- Ai works as a short form and is a complete name by itself.
- Its meaning is not fixed by the sound: without the kanji, 'child of love' is the likely reading but not the only one.
- The -ko ending has fallen quiet among younger parents in Japan, so the name may read there as belonging to an older generation.
- American English says it EYE-koh rather than AH-ee-koh, and strangers will not correct themselves.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Aiko to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Aiko
Feminine · #2719 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aikos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Aiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aiko in 2025?
- Aiko ranks #2719 among US girl names in 2025, with 63 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aiko?
- About 1 in every 25,512 US girls born in 2025 was named Aiko — 63 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aiko with classmates?
- Aiko will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aiko
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ryver#2719 · Kaliana#2719 · Morrigan#2719 · Asher#2719 · Aditi#2719 · Carley#2719 · Betsy#2719 · Emy#2719
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aiko? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aiko and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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