Yoshiko

Girls' name

Good, excellent child

Yoshiko has been given to 1,331 babies in the U.S. since 1906. 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 1921, with 85 recorded.

Babies named Yoshiko, 2007

1 in 571,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yoshiko: meaning, origin, and history

Good, excellent child

Japanese

What Yoshiko means

Yoshiko means “good, excellent child”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Borrowed from Japanese 美子, 芳子 (よしこ, Yoshiko, literally “good, excellent child”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Yoshiko (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

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

Yoshiko comes through Japanese 美子.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Yoshiko is pronounced /joʊˈʃiːkoʊ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,331 girls were recorded with the name Yoshiko between 1906 and 2007. Its highest annual count was 85 in 1921; its best national rank was #796 in 1921.

How common is Yoshiko?

Yoshiko had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2007, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2007: 1 in 571,000; 7 of 3,997,748 births
Among girls only: 1 in 275,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2007: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 395,862 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Yoshiko 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 2007 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 395,862 children born in 2007 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yoshiko. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yoshikos were born

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

Median birth year: 1923; About 102 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 46.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 6.7%; Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950: 157; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 46.9% of all recorded uses (624).

Is Yoshiko 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 1921 (85)
Years since peak: 104; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 39.6% average annual change
Best rank ever: #796; 1921

Spellings of Yoshiko

Yoshiko is the most-used spelling, taking 46.5% of the 2,864 babies given a near-identical spelling.

Yoshiko46.5%1,331
Toshiko27.9%799
Yashika25.6%734

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 Yoshiko is used

Across 1910–2025, Yoshiko was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 855 girls, against 1 in 18,737 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in 100,000).

1117 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Hawaii1 in 855
2California1 in 33,333
3Washington1 in 100,000

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

Yoshiko 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: #796; 1921
Peak year: 1921; 85 that year
First recorded: 1906
Last recorded: 2007
All-time count: 1,331
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Yoshiko

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

Yoselyn Michiko Yoselin Yosselin Mariko Kimiko Yoseline Yostina Keiko Yosuani Toshiko Emiko Sachiko Yoshie Akiko Yoshiye Namiko Yumiko Tomiko Aiko Yuriko Fumiko Yosselyn Sumiko

Sibling names for Yoshiko

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

Elvera Rubie Tressie Lavinia Myrtis Margarette Adell Idella

For a brother

Hardy Antone Harmon Arlie Burl Dewitt Patsy Milford

Explore around Yoshiko

Top names of 1921, Yoshiko's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1921 Girls' names starting with Y Japanese Girl Names