Takashi
Masculine · “Noble”
Takashi is Japanese, and it belongs to a country where most families have only had surnames since the eighteen-seventies — because until then, having one was a privilege the law reserved for a few.
How old is the name Takashi?
Takashi first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Takashi alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 400 people named Takashi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Takashi most popular?
Takashi peaked in 1925, reaching #1073 nationally. See the whole 1925 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Takashi
In the Meiji period Japan reorganized itself at speed, and one of the changes was a law requiring every household to register a surname. Before that, commoners mostly had none — surnames belonged to samurai, nobles and a few others — so within a few years millions of families chose one, often from the landscape around them, which is why so many Japanese surnames mean things like rice field, mountain mouth, and under the pine. An entire national naming system was created inside a decade by administrative order. Given names went on being chosen character by character, as they still are, which is why the given name carries meaning in a way the surname frequently does not.
Meaningscholars disagree
Noble, or high — the character decides and the record does not hold it
The sound can be written with a dozen different characters, meaning noble, prosperous, filial, high and several other things, and the character is the meaning. A name written in the Latin alphabet has lost the information that would settle it, which is why any single translation offered for it is a guess.
Pronouncing Takashi
tah-KAH-shee
Three syllables with every vowel pure and no real stress — Japanese does not use it. English speakers add one in the middle.
Nicknames for Takashi
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 boys named
- 192542 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1073reached in 1925
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%6 in 2024, from 6
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.
Takashi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 隆 in Japanese — same name
Takashis among us
people named Takashi 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
Takashi 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
- Every sound in it is available in English, so it is easy for anyone.
- It is unmistakably itself with no near neighbors in American use.
- It shortens naturally in both languages.
- The meaning depends on characters that no American document records.
- English speakers put a stress where the language has none.
- The l sound English expects does not exist in Japanese, and the r sound Japanese uses does not exist in English.
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Takashi
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Takashis 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 Takashi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Takashi in 2025?
- Takashi is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Takashi with classmates?
- Takashi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Takashi? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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