Name Awesome

Shoji

Boys' name

From Japanese しょうじ; literal meaning unconfirmed

Shoji has been given to 134 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 1927, with 81 recorded.

Babies named Shoji, 1945

1 in 531,000

Shoji over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shoji: meaning, origin, and history

From Japanese しょうじ; literal meaning unconfirmed

Japanese

What Shoji means

Shoji is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

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

Shoji comes through Japanese しょうじ.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 134 boys were recorded with the name Shoji between 1913 and 1945. Its highest annual count was 81 in 1927; its best national rank was #725 in 1927.

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 Shoji?

Shoji had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1945, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1945
1 in 531,000
5 of 2,652,840 births
Among boys only
1 in 269,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1945
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
367,763 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shoji 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 1945 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 367,763 children born in 1945 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shoji. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shojis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shoji was born before 1927 — so the typical Shoji is around 98 today.

Median birth year
1927
About 98 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
80.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
88.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
0
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 80.6% of all recorded uses (108).

Is Shoji 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 1927 (81)
Years since peak
98
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
63.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#725
1927

Spellings of Shoji

Shoji is not the most common spelling — Shon is, with 49.9% against Shoji'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 Shoji is used

Across 1910–2025, Shoji was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 12,500 boys, against 1 in 239,781 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

08 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 12,500
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Washington1 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. Shoji has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shoji around the world

Where Shoji 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
    1977–1977
    #455
    in 1977

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

Shoji 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
#725
1927
Peak year
1927
81 that year
First recorded
1913
Last recorded
1945
All-time count
134
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shoji

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

ShotaShoaibShoheiShogoShouaShownShonnShoneShonteShontaJojiShoShoichiShouryaShomaSholemSholomShozoShortyShooterKojiShomariShontezShohn

Sibling names for Shoji

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 Shoji

Top names of 1927, Shoji's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1927Boys' names starting with S