Takeshi
Masculine · “fierce”
Takeshi is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 708 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Takeshi is a Japanese man's name that appears in American records from the decades of heaviest Japanese immigration, and the record cannot always tell whether a given entry is a first name or a family one. The country it comes from still dates its documents in a way no other country does.
How old is the name Takeshi?
Takeshi first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Takeshi alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 200 people named Takeshi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Takeshi most popular?
Takeshi peaked in 1924, reaching #1107 nationally. See the whole 1924 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Takeshi
Japan counts years by imperial era rather than continuously, so a document is dated in the fifth year of a named period rather than by a number anybody outside Japan would recognize. The system is still in official use: government forms, newspapers, driving licenses and legal documents all carry era dates. Each era ends when an emperor's reign does, and the new name is announced shortly beforehand, which means every accession triggers a nationwide software problem — databases with two-character year fields, forms printed with the old era, calculations that assume a fixed offset. The change in the late two-thousand-tens was the first to happen with a month's notice rather than the day after a death, specifically so that banks and government agencies could prepare, and it was still described at the time as the country's own version of the millennium bug.
Meaningscholars disagree
fierce, warlike, strong
The sound is most often written with a character meaning military or fierce, and read that way it is a straightforwardly martial name. But the same sound is written with other characters in other families, including one meaning bamboo, and the romanised form cannot tell you which a particular family used.
Pronouncing Takeshi
tah-KESS-hee
Three syllables, all short and even, and Japanese does not stress them the way English does. An English speaker will place a stress somewhere; putting it lightly on the second is closest to the original.
Nicknames for Takeshi
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 192442 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1107reached in 1924
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%5 in 2024, 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.
Takeshi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 武 in Japanese — same name
Takeshis among us
people named Takeshi 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
Takeshi 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 syllable is open and simple, so English speakers manage it on a first attempt.
- Take works as a short form and is a real name in Japanese on its own.
- The spelling is unambiguous: nobody has to guess at the letters.
- It is also an ordinary Japanese surname, and American forms cannot tell which a family meant.
- The romanisation throws away the characters, which are where the meaning lives.
- English speakers will add a stress the language does not have, so it is said several ways.
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Takeshi
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Takeshis 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 Takeshi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Takeshi in 2025?
- Takeshi is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Takeshi with classmates?
- Takeshi 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 Takeshi? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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