Reiko
Feminine
Reiko is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 671 girls against 19 boys since 1880.
Reiko is a Japanese woman's name from the decades of heaviest Japanese immigration, and the record holds it for sons as well as daughters, which the romanisation makes possible. In the country it comes from, a name on a document is usually stamped rather than written.
How old is the name Reiko?
Reiko first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Reiko alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 500 people named Reiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Reiko most popular?
Reiko peaked in 1936, reaching #2263 nationally. See the whole 1936 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Reiko
Japan signs with a stamp. A hanko is a small cylinder with a name carved into the end, pressed onto a red ink pad and then onto the document, and it does the work a signature does elsewhere. Most people own several: a cheap one for parcels, a better one for work, and a registered inkan held on file at the local government office for property, marriage and major contracts. Losing the registered one is a serious matter and replacing it involves paperwork. Foreign residents have them made too, usually in katakana. The system has been under pressure for years — a push to allow digital signatures ran into the fact that a great many procedures still specify a physical stamp — and the government has been formally trying to reduce its use since the twenty-twenties.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The sound rei is written with several different characters carrying senses including courtesy, bell, spirit and beauty, and the romanised form cannot say which a family used. The ending is the one that marked daughters' names for most of the twentieth century.
Pronouncing Reiko
RAY-koh
Two syllables, both short and even. Japanese does not stress syllables the way English does, so an English speaker will add one; putting it lightly on the first is closest.
Nicknames for Reiko
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
- 1921
- Most girls named
- 197523 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2263reached in 1936
- Change vs 2020
- −18.2%9 in 2023, 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.
Reiko in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 玲子 in Japanese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Reikos among us
people named Reiko are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Reiko 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
- Both syllables are open, so English speakers manage it on a first attempt.
- Rei works as a short form and is a real name on its own.
- Five letters with no silent ones make it simple to spell aloud.
- The ending places the name in a specific generation and is now rare in Japan.
- The romanisation throws away the character, which is where the meaning lives.
- The record holds it for sons as well, which the written form alone does not explain.
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Reiko
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Reikos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Reiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Reiko in 2025?
- Reiko is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Reiko with classmates?
- Reiko will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Ruth#173 · Rebecca#349 · Rachel#250 · Rose#114 · Ruby#64 · Robin#704 · Rita#1285 · Rhonda#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Reiko? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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