Akemi
Feminine · “Bright beauty”
Akemi is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 927 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Akemi is a Japanese name written most often with two characters meaning bright and beauty, and the combination is exactly what it looks like: brightness and beauty put together. Which characters a family uses changes what the name says.
How old is the name Akemi?
Akemi first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Akemi alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 900 people named Akemi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Akemi most popular?
Akemi peaked in 2013, reaching #3267 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 2,287 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From 明美 to Akemi
The story of Akemi
Akemi is a twentieth-century Japanese women's name rather than a classical one, part of a large group built on the -mi ending — Akemi, Hiromi, Naomi, Megumi, Yumi — that were very common in Japan from the 1940s onward. Japanese-American families carried it, and the American record shows it thinly through the twentieth century. Its peak in 2013 is more recent and reflects the much broader American familiarity with Japanese names produced by animation, manga and games from the 1990s, rather than by immigration.
Meaningscholars disagree
Bright beauty
Japanese Akemi is commonly written 明美, from aka or aki, bright, and mi, beauty — the standard reading. Other character combinations are used and give other senses, including 朱美, vermilion beauty, and 曙美, dawn beauty. The meaning belongs to the writing, not to the sound, and a romanised Akemi carries no information about which was intended.
How the name formed
- 明美
- Akemi
Related forms: あけみ · 明美
Pronouncing Akemi
ah-KEH-mee
Three syllables, all short and even. Japanese gives them equal weight rather than stressing one; American speakers put the stress on the second.
Nicknames for Akemi
Moderate
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 201349 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3267reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%22 in 2025, from 33
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.
Akemi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- あけみ in Japanese — transliteration
- 明美 in Japanese — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Akemis among us
people named Akemi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Akemi
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 Kellyanne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Akemi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kellyanne climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kellyanne's path sketches the road Akemi is walking now.
Akemi 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
Akemi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Akemi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The usual reading is settled and unusually pleasant.
- Five letters and three open syllables are easy to say.
- Every sound in it exists in English.
- The meaning depends on characters the romanised spelling does not carry.
- It is unfamiliar outside Japanese-American communities and will be spelled out.
- Akemi and Akemy are both in the records.
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What they receive
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Akemi
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Akemis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Akemi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Akemi in 2025?
- Akemi ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Akemi?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Akemi — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Akemi with classmates?
- Akemi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Akemi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Akemi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Akemi and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
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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