Kimiko
Feminine · “noble child”
The first word of the Japanese national anthem is kimi. It means a lord or a sovereign, and it is the first element of this name: Kimiko is the noble child, built from the word that opens Kimigayo.
How old is the name Kimiko?
Kimiko first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Kimiko alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 1,300 people named Kimiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kimiko most popular?
Kimiko peaked in 1924, reaching #1258 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 5,580 places below that high. See the whole 1924 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kimiko
The character usually written first in Kimiko is the one that opens Kimigayo, the Japanese national anthem, whose text is a tenth-century poem; the word means a lord and, in the anthem, the emperor. Names built on it are correspondingly formal. The -ko ending, meaning child, dominated Japanese women's naming for most of the twentieth century and then collapsed after about 1980, so it now dates a woman precisely. Kimiko's best year in United States records is 1924, which places it among Japanese-American families of the first generation, before the exclusion act of that same year effectively ended Japanese immigration.
Meaningscholars disagree
noble child
Japanese names are written in kanji and one reading can be spelled many ways. Kimiko most often uses a character meaning noble, sovereign or lord, followed by ko, child; other combinations give beautiful child or yellow child. The romanised spelling carries the sound and discards the characters, so no single meaning can be given without knowing which were used.
Pronouncing Kimiko
KEE-mee-koh
Three syllables of even weight; Japanese uses pitch rather than stress. English speakers front-stress it, which is the ordinary adaptation.
Nicknames for Kimiko
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 198180 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1258reached in 1924
- Change vs 2023
- −54.3%16 in 2025, from 35
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.
Kimiko in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kimiko in Japanese — same name
- Kimi in Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Kimikos among us
people named Kimiko are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Kimiko
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 Vinita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kimiko's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Vinita climbed just as high around 1908, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Vinita's path sketches the road Kimiko is walking now.
Kimiko 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
Kimiko beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kimiko in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A formal and dignified set of possible meanings through the characters.
- Kimi and Kim are both usable and completely established.
- Open syllables throughout, so it is easy for any speaker.
- The -ko ending reads as a specific generation to Japanese speakers.
- Without the characters the name has no single meaning to state.
- In American records it is closely tied to the 1920s and 1930s.
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Kimiko
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kimikos 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 Kimiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kimiko in 2025?
- Kimiko ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kimiko?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Kimiko — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kimiko with classmates?
- Kimiko will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kimiko
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kimiko? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kimiko and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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