Yoshiko
Feminine
Yoshiko is in the American record from the first decade of the twentieth century, and the reason is a diplomatic agreement. Japan stopped issuing passports to laborers, but wives and family members of men already resident could still come, and for the next dozen years women arrived to marry men they had seen only in a photograph.
How old is the name Yoshiko?
Yoshiko first appears in US birth records in 1906 — 119 years ago. The typical Yoshiko alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 200 people named Yoshiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yoshiko most popular?
Yoshiko peaked in 1921, reaching #793 nationally. See the whole 1921 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Japanese name written in characters to Yoshiko
The story of Yoshiko
The women who came under that arrangement are usually called picture brides, and the exchange of photographs was the modest part of it: marriages were arranged between families across the Pacific, registered in Japan, and the wife traveled alone to a husband she met on the dock. Several thousand came. The arrangement ended when Japan stopped issuing the papers, and immigration from Japan was closed altogether a few years later. The generation of American-born children that resulted carries names like this one, which is why they appear in the record in a concentrated period and then stop, and why the dates are so precise.
Meaningnot established
Not established
A Japanese name's meaning lives in the characters it is written with, and an American birth record holds only the sound. Several quite different characters are read the same way here, and the ending is a separate character again. Without the written form no reading can be given, and the ones printed in English name books pick one possibility out of many.
How the name formed
- A Japanese name written in characters
- An agreement allowing wives to follow husbands
- Marriages arranged across the Pacific
- Yoshiko in American records for one generation
Related forms: Yoshiko
Pronouncing Yoshiko
yoh-SHEE-koh
Three syllables, evenly weighted in Japanese, which has pitch rather than stress. American speakers put the weight in the middle, which is not wrong so much as a different system applied to the same sounds.
Nicknames for Yoshiko
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
- 1906
- Most girls named
- 192185 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #793reached in 1921
- Change vs 1994
- +16.7%7 in 2007, 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.
Yoshiko in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yoshiko in Japanese — transliteration
Yoshikos among us
people named Yoshiko 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
Yoshiko 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 sound is easy for English speakers and needs no coaching.
- Yoshi is available as a short form and stands on its own.
- It carries a specific and well-documented American history.
- The meaning cannot be given without the written characters.
- It is closely tied to one generation of American-born children.
- The ending marks the name as belonging to an older Japanese fashion.
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Yoshiko
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Yoshikos 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 Yoshiko are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yoshiko in 2025?
- Yoshiko is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Yoshiko with classmates?
- Yoshiko will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More Y names
The most-given names starting with Y, all years combined.
Yvonne#2051 · Yolanda#3211 · Yvette#1622 · Yesenia#1896 · Yasmin#955 · Yasmine#1183 · Yaretzi#670 · Yadira#3832
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yoshiko? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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