Hideki
A masculine Japanese name meaning "excellent" or "splendid one".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Hideki. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hideki today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hideki births was 1974 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hideki. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hideki. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1974
9 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
1982 SSA rank
#6,736
Tracked since 1974
Census
Hideki in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 458 people with the first name Hideki, which placed it at #21,926 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,926
National first-name rank
People counted
458
458 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
87.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hideki
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hideki is Asian/Pacific Islander at 87.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.2%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Hideki described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Hideki at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander87.8% · 402
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 24
- Two or more races5.2% · 24
- White1.1% · 5
- Black or African American0.7% · 3
Popularity
Hideki: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hideki from the 1970s through to the 1980s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 15 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Hideki remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hideki by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Hideki during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hideki
The name Hideki is a Japanese masculine given name. Its origins can be traced back to the ancient Japanese language. The name is comprised of two kanji characters: "hi" meaning "excellent" or "admirable," and "deki" meaning "to be born" or "to come into existence."
The earliest recorded use of the name Hideki dates back to the Heian period in Japan, which lasted from 794 to 1185 CE. During this time, the name appeared in various literary works and historical records, indicating its popularity among the nobility and samurai classes.
One of the most notable historical figures bearing the name Hideki was Hideki Tojo (1884-1948), a Japanese military leader and prime minister during World War II. He played a significant role in Japan's imperial expansion and was later convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
Another prominent individual with the name Hideki was Hideki Yukawa (1907-1981), a Japanese theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1949 for his prediction of the existence of mesons, subatomic particles that mediate the strong nuclear force.
In the realm of sports, Hideki Matsui (born in 1974), a former professional baseball player, achieved fame as an outfielder for the New York Yankees and was a key member of their 2009 World Series championship team.
Hideki Noda (1955-2008) was a renowned Japanese playwright, director, and actor, known for his avant-garde theatrical works that often explored social and political themes. His plays, such as "The Bee" and "The Doll House," gained critical acclaim both in Japan and internationally.
Lastly, Hideki Kamiya (born in 1970) is a Japanese video game designer and writer, best known for his work on successful game franchises like "Resident Evil," "Devil May Cry," and "Bayonetta." His contributions have significantly influenced the action and survival horror genres in the gaming industry.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Hideki
People
Hideki + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hideki as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hideki: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hideki?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hideki going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Hideki a common name?
We classify Hideki as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 27 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hideki most popular?
The single biggest year for Hideki was 1974, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hideki is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hideki in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 458 people with the name Hideki, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,926 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Hideki in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Hideki?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hideki leans strongly male. 454 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 6 female bearers (1.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Hideki?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hideki is Asian/Pacific Islander at 87.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.2%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Hideki most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Hideki in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.8% (402 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Hideki in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hideki a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hideki in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Hideki still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hideki in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Hideki can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Hideki?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.