Ayako

Girls' name

Colour

Ayako has been given to 543 babies in the U.S. since 1908. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1918, with 30 recorded.

Babies named Ayako, 2019

1 in 694,000

Ayako over time, 1880–2025

Girls

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ayako: meaning, origin, and history

Colour

Japanese

What Ayako means

Ayako means “colour”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Ayako is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ä.jä.ko̞/ for Ayako.

Origin, language, and formation

Ayako is used in English, French and Tagalog. Its origins include Japanese.

Pronunciation and spelling

In French, Ayako is pronounced /a.ja.ko/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 543 girls were recorded with the name Ayako between 1908 and 2019. Its highest annual count was 30 in 1918; its best national rank was #1,414 in 1918.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Ayako?

Ayako had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2019, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2019: 1 in 694,000; 5 of 3,472,229 births
Among girls only: 1 in 336,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2019: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 481,354 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Ayako sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2019 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 481,354 children born in 2019 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ayako. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ayakos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ayako was born before 1924 — so the typical Ayako is around 101 today.

Median birth year: 1924; About 101 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 38.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 6.4%; Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950: 125; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 38.1% of all recorded uses (207).

Is Ayako rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1918 (30)
Years since peak: 107; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 28.5% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,414; 1918

Spellings of Ayako

Ayako is not the most common spelling — Ayana is, with 37.0% against Ayako's 1.7%.

Ayana37.0%12,091
Aya24.5%7,987
Ayah14.7%4,809
Aiko5.5%1,785
Ayat5.4%1,769
Ayala3.7%1,201
Ayan2.6%851
Masako2.5%821

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Ayako is used

Across 1910–2025, Ayako was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 2,941 girls, against 1 in 62,765 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

034 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Hawaii1 in 2,941
2California1 in 100,000
3Washington1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Ayako has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ayako by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,414; 1918
Peak year: 1918; 30 that year
First recorded: 1908
Last recorded: 2019
All-time count: 543
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Ayako

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Ayani Ayari Ayame Ayane Ayaat Ayaan Ayala Ayanah Ayan Ayaka Ayaana Ayannah Ayanni Ayat Ayara Hanako Ayasha Ayano Ayak Ayah Ayami Ayana Asako Hisako

Sibling names for Ayako

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Winnifred Johnie Ray Lida Maybelle Floy Garnet Mathilda

For a brother

Granville Valentine Ellsworth Orval Buster Sol Omer Ferdinand

Explore around Ayako

Top names of 1918, Ayako's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1918 Girls' names starting with A