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Hiroko

Girls' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Hiroko has been given to 328 babies in the U.S. since 1914. 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 1919, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Hiroko, 1992

1 in 768,000

Hiroko over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Hiroko: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Hiroko means

Hiroko is documented with more than one possible Japanese character combination. The Latin-letter spelling records a pronunciation; it does not specify one unique kanji spelling or one universal meaning.

Possible character meanings include tolerant, generous, abundant, prosperous, child.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Hiroko is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /çi.ɾo̞.ko̞/ for Hiroko.

Origin, language, and formation

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

Hiroko comes through Japanese ひろこ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In French, Hiroko is pronounced /i.ʁɔ.ko/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 328 girls were recorded with the name Hiroko between 1914 and 1992. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1919; its best national rank was #1,948 in 1919.

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 Hiroko?

Hiroko had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1992, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1992
1 in 768,000
5 of 3,839,369 births
Among girls only
1 in 369,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1992
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
532,251 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Hiroko 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 1992 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 532,251 children born in 1992 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Hiroko. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Hirokos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Hiroko was born before 1931 — so the typical Hiroko is around 94 today.

Median birth year
1931
About 94 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
33.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
23.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
76
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 33.2% of all recorded uses (109).

Is Hiroko 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 1919 (19)
Years since peak
106
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,948
1919

Spellings of Hiroko

Hiroko is not the most common spelling — Kiyoko is, with 29.7% against Hiroko's 10.5%.

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 Hiroko is used

Across 1910–2025, Hiroko was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 6,667 girls, against 1 in 114,407 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).

015 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 6,667
  2. 2California1 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. Hiroko has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Hiroko around the world

Where Hiroko ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–1997
    #3,824
    in 1997

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Hiroko 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
#1,948
1919
Peak year
1919
19 that year
First recorded
1914
Last recorded
1992
All-time count
328
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Hiroko

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

HiromiHirayaMiyokoHiraKiyokoToyokoMomokoHiralHiromyTomokoKyokoChiyokoKokoYokoHiraethSayokoNaokoSatokoHirvaShokoRyokoHirmaHirahHirie

Sibling names for Hiroko

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

Explore around Hiroko

Top names of 1919, Hiroko's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1919Girls' names starting with H