Name Awesome

Kou

UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Kou has been given to 724 babies in the U.S. since 1979. 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 1992, with 48 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 95% boys, 5% girls all-time.

Babies named Kou, 2017

1 in 715,000

Kou over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Kou over time

In 2017, Kou went to 0% girls and 100% boys.

19792017

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Kou: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Kou means

Kou has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: distinct naming traditions.

The naming story behind Kou

One of the source’s documented entries for Kou records a meaning of gold.

A separate documented entry treats Kou as a alternate transcription of Kanji. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 691 boys were recorded with the name Kou between 1979 and 2017. Its highest annual count was 48 in 1992; its best national rank was #1,713 in 1981.

In the United States, 33 girls were recorded with the name Kou between 1981 and 1992. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1981; its best national rank was #8,557 in 1981.

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.

How common is Kou?

Kou had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2017, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2017
1 in 715,000
5 of 3,577,106 births
Among boys only
1 in 370,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2017
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
495,893 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kou sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2017 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 495,893 children born in 2017 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kou. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kous were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kou was born before 1990 — so the typical Kou is around 35 today.

Median birth year
1990
About 35 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
46.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
33.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
691
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 46.7% of all recorded uses (323).

Is Kou 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 1992 (48)
Years since peak
33
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
16.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,713
1981

Where Kou is used

Across 1910–2025, Kou was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 33,333 boys, against 1 in 55,553 across all states with data. It was least common in Colorado (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 33,333
  2. 2Wisconsin1 in 33,333
  3. 3California1 in 100,000
  4. 4Colorado1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Kou has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kou around the world

Where Kou 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
    1978–2009
    #5,813
    in 2009

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

Kou by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,713
1981
Peak year
1992
48 that year
First recorded
1979
Last recorded
2017
All-time count
691
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#8,557
1981
Peak year
1981
7 that year
First recorded
1981
Last recorded
1992
All-time count
33
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kou

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

SekouKourtneyKouaKouryKoulKouvrKouroshKouperKoutaKourageKoukiKoulterSaikouKourtlandKoushikKoufaxKouheiKokouKousukeKoulson

Sibling names for Kou

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 Kou

Top names of 1992, Kou's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1981Boys' names starting with K