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Noriko

Girls' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Noriko has been given to 160 babies in the U.S. since 1923. 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 1984, with 11 recorded.

Babies named Noriko, 2016

1 in 612,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Noriko: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Noriko means

Noriko 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 rule, ceremony, chronicle, child.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Noriko is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /no̞.ɾi.ko̞/ for Noriko.

Origin, language, and formation

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

Noriko comes through Japanese のりこ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In French, Noriko is pronounced /nɔ.ʁi.ko/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 160 girls were recorded with the name Noriko between 1923 and 2016. Its highest annual count was 11 in 1984; its best national rank was #4,819 in 1923.

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 Noriko?

Noriko had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2016, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2016
1 in 612,000
6 of 3,669,531 births
Among girls only
1 in 295,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2016
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
423,922 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Noriko 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 2016 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 423,922 children born in 2016 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Noriko. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Norikos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Noriko was born before 1983 — so the typical Noriko is around 42 today.

Median birth year
1983
About 42 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
37.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
16.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
149
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 37.5% of all recorded uses (60).

Is Noriko 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 1984 (11)
Years since peak
41
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,819
1923

Spellings of Noriko

Noriko is not the most common spelling — Norine is, with 41.2% against Noriko's 1.3%.

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 Noriko is used

Across 1910–2025, Noriko was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 727,853 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. Noriko has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Noriko around the world

Where Noriko 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.

  • South Australia
    1977–1986
    #667
    in 1986

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Noriko 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
#4,819
1923
Peak year
1984
11 that year
First recorded
1923
Last recorded
2016
All-time count
160
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Noriko

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

NoralynNorrieNoriahNoraaNorieNoriyahNorthNorenaNorielleKamikoNormaniNorinaNoralynnNoretaNorelyYumikoNamikoNoraleeNorianaNoreeneNorelleNorellNorleneNoriel

Sibling names for Noriko

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 Noriko

Top names of 1984, Noriko's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1923Girls' names starting with N