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Mitsuo

Boys' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Mitsuo has been given to 521 babies in the U.S. since 1912. 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 1925, with 40 recorded.

Babies named Mitsuo, 1940

1 in 461,000

Mitsuo over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mitsuo: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Mitsuo means

Mitsuo 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 light, male, man, hero, manly.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Mitsuo is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /mi.t͡sɨᵝ.o̞/ for Mitsuo.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 521 boys were recorded with the name Mitsuo between 1912 and 1940. Its highest annual count was 40 in 1925; its best national rank was #1,115 in 1925.

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 Mitsuo?

Mitsuo had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1940, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1940
1 in 461,000
5 of 2,302,666 births
Among boys only
1 in 232,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1940
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
319,218 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mitsuo 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 1940 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 319,218 children born in 1940 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mitsuo. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mitsuos were born

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

Median birth year
1924
About 101 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
61.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
91.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
0
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 61.6% of all recorded uses (321).

Is Mitsuo 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 1925 (40)
Years since peak
100
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,115
1925

Where Mitsuo is used

Across 1910–2025, Mitsuo was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 1,613 boys, against 1 in 40,538 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in 100,000).

162 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 1,613
  2. 2California1 in 100,000

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

Mitsuo 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
#1,115
1925
Peak year
1925
40 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
1940
All-time count
521
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Mitsuo

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

MithranMiteshMitsuruMitchTetsuoTatsuoMitchealMitchaelMithcellMitulMitsugiMitchelMithunYasuoMithilMitchumMitchalMitanshMitchelleMittJitsuoMatsuoMithraMit

Sibling names for Mitsuo

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 Mitsuo

Top names of 1925, Mitsuo's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1925Boys' names starting with M