Misao

Girls' name

Chastity, honour

Misao has been given to 337 babies in the U.S. since 1905. 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 1924, with 29 recorded.

Babies named Misao, 1932

1 in 422,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Misao: meaning, origin, and history

Chastity, honour

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Misao means

Misao means “chastity, honour”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Misao is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /mi.sä.o̞/ for Misao.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 337 girls were recorded with the name Misao between 1905 and 1932. Its highest annual count was 29 in 1924; its best national rank was #1,551 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.

U.S. Social Security Administration: national name data and limitations

How common is Misao?

Misao had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1932, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1932: 1 in 422,000; 5 of 2,111,250 births
Among girls only: 1 in 213,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1932: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 292,683 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Misao 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 1932 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 292,683 children born in 1932 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Misao. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Misaos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Misao was born before 1920 — so the typical Misao is around 105 today.

Median birth year: 1920; About 105 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 50.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 98.2%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 50.4% of all recorded uses (170).

Is Misao 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 1924 (29)
Years since peak: 101; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 31.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,551; 1919

Spellings of Misao

Misao is not the most common spelling — Lisa is, with 61.3% against Misao's 0.02%.

Lisa61.3%967,229
Mia19.7%310,219
Misty5.4%84,654
Mila5.4%84,489
Mina1.2%19,267
Mira0.96%15,096
Micah0.89%14,035
Miah0.61%9,583

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 Misao is used

Across 1910–2025, Misao was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 2,778 girls, against 1 in 68,360 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).

036 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Hawaii1 in 2,778
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. Misao has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Misao 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: #1,551; 1919
Peak year: 1924; 29 that year
First recorded: 1905
Last recorded: 1932
All-time count: 337
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Misao

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

Mishel Miski Misaki Mishal Misk Misa Mishka Missi Mishika Mishell Mishael Mishti Mistee Mischa Misha Missy Misbah Missie Mishri Mishita Misako Mishelle Missey Mistey

Sibling names for Misao

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

Rosina Kattie Lavon Blanch Jaunita Vernell Dorris Leonora

For a brother

Alvis Eldridge Lacy Delmer Wilton Elwin Domenick Hosea

Explore around Misao

Top names of 1924, Misao's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1919 Girls' names starting with M