Sadako

Girls' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Sadako has been given to 349 babies in the U.S. since 1913. 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 25 recorded.

Babies named Sadako, 1940

1 in 461,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sadako: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Sadako means

Sadako 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 virtuous, chaste, child.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Sadako is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /sä.dä.ko̞/ for Sadako.

Origin, language, and formation

Sadako is used in English and Portuguese. Its origins include Japanese.

Sadako comes through Japanese さだこ.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 349 girls were recorded with the name Sadako between 1913 and 1940. Its highest annual count was 25 in 1924; its best national rank was #1,693 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Sadako?

Sadako 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 girls only: 1 in 229,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1940: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 319,218 kids; Even odds of a second one

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

When Sadakos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sadako was born before 1923 — so the typical Sadako is around 102 today.

Median birth year: 1923; About 102 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 58.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 92.6%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 58.7% of all recorded uses (205).

Is Sadako 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 (25)
Years since peak: 101; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 21.4% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,693; 1919

Spellings of Sadako

Sadako is not the most common spelling — Sada is, with 35.5% against Sadako's 9.5%.

Sada35.5%1,308
Masako22.3%821
Sadaf18.0%662
Ayako14.7%543
Sadako9.5%349

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 Sadako is used

Across 1910–2025, Sadako was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 2,128 girls, against 1 in 59,261 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).

047 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Hawaii1 in 2,128
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. Sadako has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Sadako 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: #1,693; 1919
Peak year: 1924; 25 that year
First recorded: 1913
Last recorded: 1940
All-time count: 349
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Sadako

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

Sadiya Sadiyah Sadey Sadhana Hanako Sadaf Sadira Sadee Sadler Sadaya Sadia Sadeen Saddie Sadi Sadye Hisako Sadeel Sadiemae Sadonna Sada Fusako Sady Miyako Sadiqa

Sibling names for Sadako

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 Merritt Lacy Delmer Wilton Elwin Domenick

Explore around Sadako

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