Akira
Feminine · “bright”
Akira is given to both — 7,817 girls and 2,020 boys since 1880. See Akira as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Akira is a Japanese given name written with kanji that cluster around light — bright, clear, evident. It has three open syllables and ends on a vowel, which is why English speakers rarely stumble on it after hearing it once. In Japan it has long been carried mostly by men; in American records it turns up mostly on girls, and both roads are real.
How old is the name Akira?
Akira first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Akira alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 7,700 people named Akira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Akira most popular?
Akira peaked in 2008, reaching #707 nationally. Today it ranks #983, 276 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Akira appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Akira
Akira is Japanese, and the sound can be written with several different kanji, each of them pointing toward brightness or clarity — a family chooses the characters, and with them the shade of meaning. In Japan the name has been overwhelmingly masculine, borne by film directors, manga artists and generations of ordinary men. It reached wider English-speaking ears through Japanese cinema and through the manga and animated film titled Akira, which found audiences well outside Japan from the 1980s onward. In American records the name has settled mostly on girls, with a smaller number of boys receiving it too, so the same four letters now travel in both directions depending on which side of the Pacific you are standing.
Meaning
bright, clear
Japanese names carry meaning through the characters chosen rather than the sound alone, so an Akira may be written 明 (bright), 亮 (clear), 晶 (sparkling) or 彰 (evident). All of them sit in the same field of light and clarity.
Pronouncing Akira
ah-KEE-rah
That is the usual American pronunciation. Japanese gives the three syllables more even weight, closer to A-ki-ra with no strong stress and a light, tapped r. Both are heard; the spelling survives either way.
Nicknames for Akira
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 2008424 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #707reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −6.2%257 in 2025, from 274
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.
Akira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- あきら in Japanese — transliteration
- 明 in Japanese — transliteration
- Akirah in English — spelling variant
- Aki in Japanese — related form
- Akihiro in Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Akiras among us
people named Akira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,254 born in 2025 was named Akira
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 Jenni test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Akira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jenni climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jenni's path sketches the road Akira is walking now.
Akira 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 Akira is headed
Akira should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Akira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Akira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds once heard, in three clear syllables, which keeps misspellings rare even though the name itself is uncommon.
- Contains Kira, an independently established name, so a ready-made short form exists without inventing one.
- Recognized in two language traditions at once — fully at home in Japanese, and familiar to English speakers through Japanese film and manga.
- Uncommon enough that a child is likely to be the only Akira in a school, while still being a name teachers have encountered before.
- In Japan this is predominantly a man's name. Anyone with Japanese-language background, and anyone who knows the film that shares the title, may assume a boy first. That is easy to correct, but it will happen more than once.
- American use runs mostly to girls with a smaller number of boys, so forms, class lists and strangers can guess wrong in either direction.
- Stress wanders between the American ah-KEE-rah and the flatter Japanese pattern. Families often settle on one and let the other pass without correction.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Akira to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Akira
Feminine · #983 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Akiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,700 people named Akira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Akira in 2025?
- Akira ranks #983 among US girl names in 2025, with 257 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Akira?
- About 1 in every 6,254 US girls born in 2025 was named Akira — 257 in all.
- Will my child share the name Akira with classmates?
- Akira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Akira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Arely#983 · Skyla#983 · Kamiyah#983 · Ashlynn#980 · Khadija#980 · Cordelia#980 · Karter#987 · Addilyn#987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Akira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Akira and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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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