Kota
Masculine · “great and prosperous”
Kota is given to both — 1,047 boys and 158 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Kota is a Japanese name meaning great and prosperous, and it is separately the Lakota and Dakota word for a friend or an ally.
How old is the name Kota?
Kota first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Kota is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Kota are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kota most popular?
Kota peaked in 2023, reaching #1817 nationally. Today it ranks #1826, 9 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kota
Kota is an ordinary Japanese boys' name written with several character pairs. Separately, Dakota — the Siouan word for an ally — entered American naming in the 1980s and produced Kota as a short form. Both routes brought it to America, where it appears in the registers and is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
great and prosperous; friend
The Japanese Kota is built from two characters, commonly ko, 'great' or 'happiness', and ta, 'thick' or 'prosperous'. Separately, Dakota means 'friend' or 'ally' in the Siouan languages, and Kota functions as its clipping. The two are unrelated and both are in use.
Pronouncing Kota
KOH-tah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Japanese gives both vowels an even weight.
Nicknames for Kota
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
- 1985
- Most boys named
- 202388 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1817reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- +17.6%87 in 2025, from 74
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.
Kota in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 航太 in Japanese — transliteration
- Dakota in English — related form
- Cota in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kotas among us
people named Kota are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 19,633 born in 2025 was named Kota
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 Cisco test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kota's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cisco climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cisco's path sketches the road Kota is walking now.
Kota is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kota is headed
Kota looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 15% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Kota beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kota in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two genuine living traditions can claim it, Japanese and Siouan.
- The friend reading is concrete and unusually warm.
- Four letters, two syllables, and never misheard.
- The two origins are entirely unrelated.
- The Japanese meaning depends on which characters are used.
- It is very short and can be swallowed by a long surname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Kota to the vote.
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What they receive
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Kota
Masculine · #1826 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kotas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Kota are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kota in 2025?
- Kota ranks #1826 among US boy names in 2025, with 87 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kota?
- About 1 in every 19,633 US boys born in 2025 was named Kota — 87 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kota with classmates?
- Kota will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kota
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Charley#1826 · Mylan#1826 · Darell#1826 · Vladimir#1826 · Radley#1826 · Azaire#1826 · Oziah#1826 · Jaysen#1826
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kota? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kota and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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