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Yoshio

Boys' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Yoshio has been given to 1,175 babies in the U.S. since 1910. 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 73 recorded.

Babies named Yoshio, 2021

1 in 565,000

Yoshio over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Yoshio: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Yoshio means

Yoshio 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 righteous, hero, manly.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Yoshio is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /jo̞.ɕi.o̞/ for Yoshio.

Origin, language, and formation

Yoshio is used in English. Its origins include Japanese.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,175 boys were recorded with the name Yoshio between 1910 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 73 in 1921; its best national rank was #799 in 1921.

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 Yoshio?

Yoshio had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 565,000
6 of 3,389,958 births
Among boys only
1 in 292,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
391,624 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Yoshio 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 2021 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 391,624 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Yoshio. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Yoshios were born

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

Median birth year
1923
About 102 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
42.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
5.9%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
179
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 42.6% of all recorded uses (501).

Is Yoshio 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 (73)
Years since peak
104
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#799
1921

Spellings of Yoshio

Yoshio is the most-used spelling, taking 37.9% of the 3,099 babies given a near-identical spelling.

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 Yoshio is used

Across 1910–2025, Yoshio was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 1,099 boys, against 1 in 38,559 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

091 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 1,099
  2. 2California1 in 50,000
  3. 3Washington1 in 100,000
  4. 4Texas1 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. Yoshio has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Yoshio around the world

Where Yoshio 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
    1999–1999
    #539
    in 1999

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

Yoshio 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
#799
1921
Peak year
1921
73 that year
First recorded
1910
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
1,175
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Yoshio

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

YosephYoshuaYosiahYostinYossiYossefYosmarYosielYosohnYoshiYosefToshioYoskarYosgartYosgarYoshitoYosufYoscarYoshimiYosukeYosbelMichioYoshiakiYosif

Sibling names for Yoshio

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 Yoshio

Top names of 1921, Yoshio's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1921Boys' names starting with YJapanese Names