Kazuo
Masculine · “first son”
Kazuo is a Japanese man's name of a very traditional kind, and the last syllable is the part that does the work. The o at the end is a character meaning man, and for most of the twentieth century it marked a boy's name as clearly as a suffix can. What comes before it varies from family to family, and so, therefore, does what the name means.
How old is the name Kazuo?
Kazuo first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Kazuo alive today was born around 1922, making them about 103 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Kazuo are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Kazuo most popular?
Kazuo peaked in 1921, reaching #931 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,077 places below that high. See the whole 1921 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kazuo
Names ending in this character were the standard way of naming Japanese boys through the Meiji era and well past the middle of the twentieth century, and Kazuo is one of the most ordinary of them. It reaches American records through the first generation of Japanese immigrants, who arrived in Hawaii and on the West Coast around the turn of the twentieth century and whose sons were born here as American citizens. That immigration was cut off by law in the 1920s, which is why the name has a shape in the American record that has nothing to do with fashion and everything to do with policy.
Meaningscholars disagree
first son, or man of harmony, depending on the characters chosen
Japanese names are written in characters, and the sound alone does not fix the sense. Kazuo is most often written with a first character meaning one — giving first son or firstborn man — and almost as often with the character for harmony or peace, giving something closer to man of accord. Several other writings exist. The family chooses, and two men with the same name may carry different meanings.
Pronouncing Kazuo
kah-ZOO-oh
Three syllables, all of them short and even; Japanese does not stress syllables the way English does, so the name is said flat rather than with a peak. English speakers usually settle on kah-ZOO-oh, which is close enough that no one is troubled.
Nicknames for Kazuo
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
- 1911
- Most boys named
- 192157 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #931reached in 1921
- Change vs 2009
- −28.6%5 in 2025, from 7
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.
Kazuo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kazuo in Japanese — transliteration
Kazuos among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Kazuo are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Kazuo
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 Georgie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kazuo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Georgie climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Georgie's path sketches the road Kazuo is walking now.
Kazuo 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
Kazuo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kazuo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a completely standard Japanese name with a long and ordinary history behind it.
- Kaz is a ready short form that works effortlessly in an English-speaking country.
- Every syllable is open and simple, so it survives any accent intact.
- The written characters let a family choose the meaning, which is a kind of latitude very few names offer.
- Written in the Roman alphabet, the name loses the characters that carry its meaning, and in America that loss is permanent.
- The final o reads as feminine to some English speakers, who expect an o ending to behave the way it does in Italian or Spanish.
- It belongs to an older generation in Japan too, so it will sound formal to Japanese relatives rather than fresh.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Kazuo
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kazuos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Kazuo are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Kazuo in 2025?
- Kazuo ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kazuo?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Kazuo — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kazuo with classmates?
- Kazuo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kazuo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kazuo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kazuo 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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