Yuki
Masculine · “snow”
Yuki is given to both — 567 boys and 1,067 girls since 1880. See Yuki as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Japanese parents can decide what a name means after choosing how it sounds, or choose the meaning first and pick a sound to carry it. Yuki can be written with the character for snow, or for happiness, or for reason and chronicle, and the sound gives no clue which one a family chose.
How old is the name Yuki?
Yuki first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Yuki alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 600 people named Yuki are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yuki most popular?
Yuki peaked in 1996, reaching #2911 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 3,535 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Yuki
Japanese naming allows what the language calls nanori, special readings reserved for names, so parents have a genuinely creative role that most naming systems do not permit: they select characters for sense and assign a reading that the characters do not ordinarily have. The consequence is that a Japanese name has two layers, the written and the spoken, and neither determines the other. Yuki is also unisex in Japan, and which sex it reads as depends on the characters rather than the sound. In United States records the diacritics and the characters are both gone, leaving four letters and a best year of 1996 on the male side.
Meaningscholars disagree
snow, or happiness, depending on the characters
Japanese given names are written in kanji, and the same reading can be spelled with many different characters. Yuki most often uses the character for snow or the one for happiness and good fortune, and a large number of two-character combinations also produce the reading. The romanised spelling carries the sound and discards the meaning entirely, which is why no single gloss can be given for it.
Pronouncing Yuki
YOO-kee
Two syllables of equal weight; Japanese has pitch rather than stress, so neither syllable is emphasized the way English would emphasize one. English speakers front-stress it, which is the ordinary adaptation.
Nicknames for Yuki
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
- 1986
- Most boys named
- 199625 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2911reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%13 in 2025, from 13
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.
Yuki in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yuki in Japanese — same name
- Yukio in Japanese — related form
- Yukiko in Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Yukis among us
people named Yuki are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Yuki
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Yuki
- #6446
- Yuki on the 2025 chart
- #910
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Yuki went to 13 boys in 2025, but Yuuki is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 18, which makes it the 910th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,536 places above the chart.
- Yuki13
- Yuuki5
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 131,390 for Yuki itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Aurora test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yuki's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aurora climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aurora's path sketches the road Yuki is walking now.
Yuki 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
Yuki beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yuki in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two open syllables, and easy for speakers of almost any language.
- Fully unisex in Japan, which some families count as an advantage.
- Carries a real and pleasant set of possible meanings through the characters.
- Without the characters the name has no single meaning to state.
- It is unisex in Japan and will be read as female by many Americans.
- Yuki, Yuuki and Yukie are all distinct in Japanese and identical in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Yuki
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yukis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Yuki are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Yuki?
- Yuki is the most-used spelling in US records — 13 of the 18 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Yuuki.
- How popular is the name Yuki in 2025?
- Yuki ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yuki?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Yuki — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yuki with classmates?
- Yuki will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yuki
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yuki? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yuki and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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