Masao
Masculine · “correct or righteous man”
Japanese families numbered their sons. Ichiro is the first son, Jiro the second, Saburo the third, and the practice ran deep enough that a man's name told you his place in the family before he opened his mouth. Masao belongs to the same set of endings — the o at the end is a character meaning man.
How old is the name Masao?
Masao first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Masao alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Masao are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Masao most popular?
Masao peaked in 1918, reaching #700 nationally. See the whole 1918 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Japanese men's names built with a character meaning man to Masao
The story of Masao
The numbering system is the plainest naming practice in any major language. It was strongest in ordinary families rather than aristocratic ones, and it went to at least six: first son, second son, third son, and onwards, with the number sitting in the name in a form anybody could read. It has faded a great deal since the war, partly because families are smaller and partly because a name that announces you are the fourth son stopped seeming like a good start. But the endings survive, and a Japanese speaker meeting a Masao or an Akio can still hear the shape of the older system.
Meaning
correct or righteous man
The name is built from two characters, one carrying a sense of correctness or justice and one meaning man or husband. That second element closes a very large number of Japanese men's names of the last century — Hideo, Takeo, Norio, Akio — and it functions almost as a suffix. Which characters a particular Masao carries is a family matter, and the romanised spelling does not record it.
How the name formed
- Japanese men's names built with a character meaning man
- sons numbered in their names by birth order
- Masao in ordinary use through the twentieth century
- carried to America with Japanese migration
- the practice fades after the war
Related forms: Masao · Masaru
Pronouncing Masao
MAH-sah-oh
Three syllables of roughly even weight, with pure vowels and no stress accent of the English kind. English speakers produce muh-SOW, which loses the third syllable entirely.
Nicknames for Masao
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
- 1907
- Most boys named
- 191881 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #700reached in 1918
- Change vs 2013
- 0.0%5 in 2019, from 5
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.
Masao in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Masao in Japanese — same name
- Masaru in Japanese — related form
Masaos among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Masao are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Masao sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is clear, dignified and easy to explain.
- Mas is available and has a long history among Japanese American families.
- Every letter is pronounced, which makes it easier for English speakers than it looks.
- English speakers will compress three syllables into two.
- The characters behind the name cannot be recovered from the spelling.
- It is closely associated with a particular generation in Japan and in America.
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Masao
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Masaos 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 Masao are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Masao in 2025?
- Masao is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Masao with classmates?
- Masao will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Masao? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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