Miyoko
Feminine · “beautiful generation child”
Miyoko appears in the American top twelve hundred and twenty in 1917, which is unusually early for a Japanese name in these records and points at a specific history: Japanese migration to Hawaii and the west coast from the 1880s, and the American-born generation that followed. The name is built the way most Japanese women's names of that era were.
How old is the name Miyoko?
Miyoko first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Miyoko alive today was born around 1926, making them about 99 years old. About 200 people named Miyoko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Miyoko most popular?
Miyoko peaked in 1917, reaching #1219 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 4,897 places below that high. See the whole 1917 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Miyoko
The -ko ending dominated Japanese women's naming for most of the twentieth century: Yoshiko, Michiko, Hanako, Miyoko, Sachiko. It had been an aristocratic marker in earlier periods and spread to general use in the Meiji era, becoming near-universal by the 1930s and then declining sharply after 1980, so that a Japanese woman's name now dates her generation almost as precisely as a birth certificate. Japanese migration to Hawaii began in 1868 and to the American mainland shortly after; American-born Japanese children appear in the records from the 1900s, which is why a name like Miyoko peaks here in 1917.
Meaningscholars disagree
beautiful generation child, in the most common writing
Japanese names are written in kanji and the same sound can be written many ways, each giving a different sense. Miyoko is most often written with characters for beauty, generation or world, and child — giving something like 'beautiful child of the age'. Other writings substitute characters for three, or for temple, or for increase. The -ko ending, 'child', was on the great majority of Japanese women's names until the 1980s and is now uncommon.
Pronouncing Miyoko
mee-YOH-koh
Three syllables, evenly weighted in Japanese, which has pitch rather than stress. English speakers put the stress in the middle, which is the usual American version and is understood everywhere.
Nicknames for Miyoko
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
- 1913
- Most girls named
- 192439 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1219reached in 1917
- Change vs 2024
- +137.5%19 in 2025, from 8
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.
Miyoko in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Miyoko in Japanese — same name
- Miyo in Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Miyokos among us
people named Miyoko are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Miyoko
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 Delight test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Miyoko's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Delight climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Delight's path sketches the road Miyoko is walking now.
Miyoko 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
Miyoko beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Miyoko in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is stable in romanisation and needs no accents.
- Miyo and Yoko are both complete Japanese names available as short forms.
- It has a documented Japanese-American history going back more than a century.
- The meaning depends on which characters a family chose, so there is no single answer.
- In Japan the -ko ending now dates a bearer to before about 1980.
- It is rare in the United States and will be spelled out routinely.
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What they receive
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Miyoko
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Miyokos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Miyoko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Miyoko in 2025?
- Miyoko ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Miyoko?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Miyoko — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Miyoko with classmates?
- Miyoko will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Miyoko
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Miyoko? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Miyoko and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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