Kannon
Japanese form of the Sanskrit name Avalokiteshvara, meaning "the lord who regards the world."
Name Census estimates that about 5,856 living Americans carry the first name Kannon. It is a predominantly male name (97.8% of registrations). The average person named Kannon today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kannon births was 2020 (533 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kannon. 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
- • Although Kannon is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 130 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Kannon is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.9K
~ 1 in 58,530 Americans
Peak year
2020
533 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#983
Tracked since 1972
Gender
Gender distribution for Kannon
Kannon leans heavily male at 97.8% of total registrations, but 130 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kannon as a male name
- Ranked #983 in 2024
- 228 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (525 births)
Kannon as a female name
- Ranked #10,636 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (12 births)
Popularity
Kannon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kannon from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,848 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kannon remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kannon 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 Kannon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kannons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Kannon, while Montana, District of Columbia, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 116 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kannon
The name Kannon has its origins in the Sanskrit name Avalokiteśvara, which means "the lord who gazes down" or "the lord of what we see." This name refers to the bodhisattva of compassion in Mahayana Buddhism. The name Kannon is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit name, Guanyin.
The name first appeared in Japan during the 6th century CE, when Buddhism was introduced to the country. The bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, known as Kannon in Japan, was widely revered and depicted in Buddhist art and literature. The name gained popularity as a given name for both males and females in Japan due to its association with compassion and spiritual enlightenment.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kannon is in the Nihon Shoki, a historical record of ancient Japan compiled in the 8th century CE. The text mentions a prince named Kannon no Ōkimi, who lived in the late 6th century.
Throughout Japanese history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kannon, including Kannon Hōshi, a Buddhist monk and calligrapher who lived in the 15th century. Another famous Kannon was Kannon Watanabe, a 16th-century samurai and military commander who served under the Tokugawa shogunate.
In the realm of art, Kannon Natsume was a renowned Japanese painter and lacquer artist who lived in the late 19th century and was known for his exceptional works depicting Buddhist deities, including the bodhisattva Kannon.
The name Kannon has also been associated with notable figures in Japanese literature. Kannon Shozaburo was a renowned poet and haiku master who lived in the 18th century and was widely celebrated for his mastery of traditional Japanese poetic forms.
Another prominent individual bearing the name was Kannon Tomori, a 19th-century philosopher and scholar who made significant contributions to the study of Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism in Japan.
People
Kannon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kannon as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kannon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kannon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,856 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kannon 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 58,530 US residents.
Is Kannon a common name?
We classify Kannon as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,905 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kannon most popular?
The single biggest year for Kannon was 2020, when 533 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kannon is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Kannon a male name?
Yes, 97.8% of people registered as Kannon 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.
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.