Kayo
A feminine Japanese name meaning "victorious one" or "successful child".
Name Census estimates that about 263 living Americans carry the first name Kayo. It is a predominantly male name (98.2% of registrations). The average person named Kayo today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kayo births was 2009 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kayo. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kayo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
263
~ 1 in 1,303,248 Americans
Peak year
2009
20 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,629
Tracked since 1926
Census
Kayo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 799 people with the first name Kayo, which placed it at #14,674 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
#14,674
National first-name rank
People counted
799
799 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
62.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kayo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayo is Asian/Pacific Islander at 62.6%. The next largest groups are White (16.4%) and Black (10.3%). 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 Kayo 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 Kayo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander62.6% · 500
- White16.4% · 131
- Black or African American10.3% · 82
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 38
- Two or more races4.1% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Kayo
Kayo leans heavily male at 98.2% of total registrations, but 5 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kayo as a male name
- Ranked #6,629 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (20 births)
Kayo as a female name
- Ranked #9,006 in 1973
- 5 female births in 1973
- Peak: 1973 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kayo on both sides of the split. Of the 797 people counted with this name, 255 were male (32.0%) and 542 were female (68.0%).
Popularity
Kayo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kayo from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 102 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kayo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kayo 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 Kayo 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 Kayo
The name Kayo is a Japanese given name with origins dating back to the Nara period (710-794 AD). It is derived from the Japanese word "kayo," which means "song" or "melody." The name was initially given to children born into families of musicians or poets.
In the 8th century, Kayo was the name of a renowned Japanese court musician who served under the Emperor Shomu. Her skills as a performer and composer were highly praised, and her name became associated with musical excellence.
The name Kayo also appears in the "Manyoshu," the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, compiled in the 8th century. Several poems in this anthology are attributed to individuals named Kayo, suggesting the name's popularity during that era.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kayo is Kayo no Sukezane, a Japanese nobleman who lived in the late 12th century. He was a prominent figure in the Kamakura shogunate and served as a diplomacy envoy.
In the 16th century, Kayo Hiraga was a renowned calligrapher and artist who contributed to the development of the Japanese calligraphic style known as "Hiragana."
During the Edo period (1603-1868), Kayo Inoue was a notable samurai and daimyo (feudal lord) who ruled over the Aizu domain.
In the 19th century, Kayo Nakai was a pioneering Japanese educator who founded one of the country's first modern schools for girls.
Another historical figure with the name Kayo was Kayo Murayama, a Japanese philosopher and educator who lived from 1891 to 1952. He played a significant role in the introduction of Western philosophy to Japan.
People
Kayo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kayo 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
Kayo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kayo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 263 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kayo 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 1,303,248 US residents.
Is Kayo a common name?
We classify Kayo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 273 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kayo most popular?
The single biggest year for Kayo was 2009, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kayo is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kayo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 799 people with the name Kayo, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,674 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 Kayo 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 Kayo?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kayo on both sides of the split. Of the 797 people counted with this name, 255 were male (32.0%) and 542 were female (68.0%). 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 Kayo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayo is Asian/Pacific Islander at 62.6%. The next largest groups are White (16.4%) and Black (10.3%). 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 Kayo most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Kayo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.6% (500 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 Kayo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kayo a male name?
Yes, 98.2% of people registered as Kayo 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 Kayo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kayo 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 Kayo 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 many Americans are named Kayo?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.