Kiyoshi
Masculine · “Japanese kiyoshi”
Kiyoshi is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,226 boys against 15 girls since 1880.
Kiyoshi, Hiroshi, Takashi, Satoshi. All four are adjectives in a grammatical form Japanese no longer uses in speech: the classical conclusive form of an adjective, which modern Japanese has replaced. The names are frozen grammar, correct in a language nobody has spoken for centuries and perfectly ordinary as names.
How old is the name Kiyoshi?
Kiyoshi first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Kiyoshi alive today was born around 1926, making them about 99 years old. About 400 people named Kiyoshi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kiyoshi most popular?
Kiyoshi peaked in 1923, reaching #835 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 7,408 places below that high. See the whole 1923 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kiyoshi to Kiyoshi
The story of Kiyoshi
The 1923 peak sits at the end of Japanese immigration to the United States. The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 had already restricted it, and the Immigration Act of 1924 ended it almost completely, so the American Japanese population stopped growing by arrival and the name curve turns over. What follows is the ordinary pattern for an immigrant name, with the second generation choosing English first names, complicated here by the internment of 1942, after which many families deliberately anglicized. Kiyoshi survives in the data as a middle name far more often than as a first one for exactly that reason. The grammar behind the name is worth keeping: classical Japanese distinguished the form of an adjective used to end a sentence from the form used before a noun, and the -shi ending is the first of those. Modern Japanese merged them, so the names preserve a distinction the living language has lost.
Meaning
Japanese kiyoshi, pure or clear
From the classical Japanese adjective kiyoshi, pure, clean or clear, whose modern form is kiyoi. Written most often with a single character meaning pure. Names of this type end in -shi and preserve a form of the adjective that dropped out of ordinary speech: Hiroshi is broad, Takashi is high or noble, Satoshi is wise. It peaks in the American data in 1923.
How the name formed
- kiyoshi
- Kiyoshi
Related forms: Kiyoshi
Pronouncing Kiyoshi
kee-YO-shee
Three syllables, all short and even in Japanese, which uses pitch rather than stress. English speakers add a stress, usually on the second syllable. The final vowel is often devoiced in Japanese and can sound almost absent.
Nicknames for Kiyoshi
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
- 1910
- Most boys named
- 192366 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #835reached in 1923
- Change vs 2023
- −18.2%9 in 2025, from 11
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.
Kiyoshi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kiyoshi in Japanese — transliteration
Kiyoshis among us
people named Kiyoshi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Kiyoshi
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 Eston test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kiyoshi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eston climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eston's path sketches the road Kiyoshi is walking now.
Kiyoshi 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
Kiyoshi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kiyoshi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, simple and positive.
- It preserves a piece of classical Japanese grammar.
- Kiyo is a natural short form in both languages.
- Three syllables is long for American use.
- English adds a stress accent Japanese does not have.
- It is rare outside Japanese American families.
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What they receive
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Kiyoshi
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kiyoshis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Kiyoshi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kiyoshi in 2025?
- Kiyoshi ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kiyoshi?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Kiyoshi — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kiyoshi with classmates?
- Kiyoshi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kiyoshi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kiyoshi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kiyoshi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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