Kaoru
A Japanese name meaning "fragrant" or "fragrant breeze".
Name Census estimates that about 27 living Americans carry the first name Kaoru. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Kaoru today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaoru births was 1921 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaoru. 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 Kaoru. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
27
~ 1 in 12,694,605 Americans
Peak year
1921
30 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
1999 SSA rank
#9,302
Tracked since 1914
Census
Kaoru in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 862 people with the first name Kaoru, which placed it at #13,861 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
#13,861
National first-name rank
People counted
862
862 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
94.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaoru
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaoru is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.8%) and White (1.5%). 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 Kaoru 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 Kaoru at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander94.3% · 813
- Two or more races2.8% · 24
- White1.5% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Kaoru
Kaoru is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 251 total registrations, 168 (66.9%) were male and 83 (33.1%) were female.
Kaoru as a male name
- Ranked #9,302 in 1999
- 6 male births in 1999
- Peak: 1921 (17 births)
Kaoru as a female name
- Ranked #12,534 in 1994
- 6 female births in 1994
- Peak: 1921 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaoru leans strongly female. 699 people counted with this name were female (80.9%), compared with 165 male bearers (19.1%).
Popularity
Kaoru: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaoru from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 162 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaoru 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 Kaoru during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaorus live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaoru
The name Kaoru originates from Japan and is a unisex name that can be used for both males and females. It is composed of the kanji characters 香 (ka) meaning "fragrance" or "aroma," and 恩 (oru) meaning "grace" or "favor." Together, the name can be interpreted as "fragrant grace" or "fragrant favor."
Historically, the name Kaoru has been traced back to the Heian period (794-1185 CE) in Japan, a time of great cultural and artistic flourishing. During this period, aristocratic families often bestowed poetic and nature-inspired names on their children, reflecting the refined aesthetics of the era.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Kaoru can be found in the classic Japanese literary work, "The Tale of Genji," written in the early 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu. In this renowned work, Kaoru is the name of a character, a young woman who is a minor character but whose name is mentioned several times.
Throughout Japanese history, several notable figures have borne the name Kaoru. One such figure was Kaoru Ishikawa (1869-1949), a renowned Japanese painter and educator who played a significant role in the development of Western-style painting in Japan during the Meiji and Taisho periods.
Another prominent individual with the name Kaoru was Kaoru Tomiyama (1936-2022), a Japanese author and critic who was known for his insightful literary critiques and his contributions to the field of Japanese literature.
In the realm of sports, Kaoru Betto (1914-1996) was a Japanese long-distance runner who represented Japan in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He won a bronze medal in the marathon event, becoming the first Japanese athlete to win an Olympic medal in a long-distance running event.
Kaoru Mori (born 1978) is a contemporary Japanese manga artist best known for her historical fiction manga series "Emma" and "Otoyomegatari" (A Bride's Story), which have received critical acclaim for their detailed depictions of 19th-century European and Central Asian cultures.
Lastly, Kaoru Watanabe (1936-2022) was a renowned Japanese taiko drummer and composer who played a significant role in popularizing traditional Japanese drumming both within Japan and internationally. He was a pivotal figure in the preservation and promotion of Japanese traditional music and culture.
People
Kaoru + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaoru 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
Kaoru: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaoru?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 27 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaoru 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 12,694,605 US residents.
Is Kaoru a common name?
We classify Kaoru as "Very Rare". It ranks above 44.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 251 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaoru most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaoru was 1921, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaoru is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaoru in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 862 people with the name Kaoru, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,861 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 Kaoru 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 Kaoru?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaoru leans strongly female. 699 people counted with this name were female (80.9%), compared with 165 male bearers (19.1%). 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 Kaoru?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaoru is Asian/Pacific Islander at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.8%) and White (1.5%). 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 Kaoru most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Kaoru in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.3% (813 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 Kaoru in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaoru a male name?
Yes, 66.9% of people registered as Kaoru 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 Kaoru still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaoru 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 Kaoru 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 Kaoru?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.