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Junko

Girls' name

Obedience or pure

Junko has been given to 117 babies in the U.S. since 1926. 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 1971, with 14 recorded.

Babies named Junko, 1992

1 in 768,000

Junko over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Junko: meaning, origin, and history

Obedience or pure

Japanese

What Junko means

Junko means “obedience or pure”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Junko is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /d͡ʑɯᵝŋ.ko̞/ for Junko.

Origin, language, and formation

Junko is used in English. Its origins include Japanese.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 117 girls were recorded with the name Junko between 1926 and 1992. Its highest annual count was 14 in 1971; its best national rank was #4,193 in 1971.

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 Junko?

Junko 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 Junko 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 Junko. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Junkos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Junko was born before 1974 — so the typical Junko is around 51 today.

Median birth year
1974
About 51 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
55.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
79.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
106
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 55.6% of all recorded uses (65).

Is Junko 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 1971 (14)
Years since peak
54
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,193
1971

Spellings of Junko

Junko is not the most common spelling — June is, with 97.1% against Junko's 0.06%.

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 Junko is used

Across 1910–2025, Junko was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,000,798 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 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. Junko has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Junko around the world

Where Junko 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.

  • France
    1975–1975
    #2,182
    in 1975

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Junko 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
#4,193
1971
Peak year
1971
14 that year
First recorded
1926
Last recorded
1992
All-time count
117
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Junko

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

JuneauJuneeJunJuniJungJunnieJuniaJuniorJuniceJunieJunneJunahJunaJunaeJuniyaJunisJunellJunellaJunelleJunoJunetteJunettaJunieeJuniata

Sibling names for Junko

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 Junko

Top names of 1971, Junko's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1971Girls' names starting with J