Kiyomi
Feminine Japanese name meaning "pure beauty" or "pure radiance".
Name Census estimates that about 1,821 living Americans carry the first name Kiyomi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kiyomi today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kiyomi births was 2024 (240 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kiyomi. 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 Kiyomi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kiyomi is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 188,223 Americans
Peak year
2024
240 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
1921 SSA rank
#1,043
Tracked since 1917
Census
Kiyomi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,388 people with the first name Kiyomi, which placed it at #9,837 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
#9,837
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,388 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
48.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kiyomi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kiyomi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (22.3%) and Hispanic (14.5%). 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 Kiyomi 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 Kiyomi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander48.0% · 666
- Two or more races22.3% · 310
- Hispanic or Latino14.5% · 201
- Black or African American11.8% · 164
- White3.1% · 43
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Kiyomi
Out of the 1,888 babies given the name Kiyomi since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Kiyomi as a male name
- Ranked #4,115 in 1921
- 6 male births in 1921
- Peak: 1921 (6 births)
Kiyomi as a female name
- Ranked #1,043 in 2024
- 240 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (240 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kiyomi leans strongly female. 1,359 people counted with this name were female (97.5%), compared with 35 male bearers (2.5%).
Popularity
Kiyomi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kiyomi from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 936 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kiyomi 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 Kiyomi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kiyomis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. California, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Kiyomi, while Oklahoma, Nevada, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kiyomi
The name Kiyomi is a Japanese feminine given name derived from combining the words "kiyo" meaning "pure" and "mi" meaning "beautiful". It originated in Japan during the early to mid-20th century as a modern construction likely influenced by classical Japanese poetry and literature's frequent use of nature-inspired imagery.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Kiyomi can be found in the writings of Takuboku Ishikawa, a renowned early 20th century Japanese poet who referenced the name in his 1909 collection "Ichiaku no Suna" (A Handful of Sand). Ishikawa was born in 1886 and passed away in 1912 at the young age of 26.
Another early prominent individual named Kiyomi was Kiyomi Mikamo, a Japanese tennis player who competed in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. Born in 1897, she was one of the first Japanese women to compete in the Olympic Games as an athlete.
In the mid-20th century, Kiyomi Kodama became a respected Japanese archaeologist known for her work excavating and researching ancient burial mounds and tombs across Japan. Born in 1923, she made significant contributions to the field over her long career.
The name experienced a rise in popularity in Japan during the latter half of the 20th century. One notable individual was Kiyomi Hamaguchi, a Japanese marathon runner who won the Boston Marathon in 1966 and 1973. She was born in 1942.
In more recent decades, Kiyomi Fukasawa gained fame as a celebrated Japanese actress known for her roles in popular television dramas and films from the 1980s through the 2000s. Born in 1952, she continues to act today.
People
Kiyomi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kiyomi 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
Kiyomi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kiyomi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,821 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kiyomi 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 188,223 US residents.
Is Kiyomi a common name?
We classify Kiyomi as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,888 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kiyomi most popular?
The single biggest year for Kiyomi was 2024, when 240 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kiyomi is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kiyomi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,388 people with the name Kiyomi, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,837 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 Kiyomi 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 Kiyomi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kiyomi leans strongly female. 1,359 people counted with this name were female (97.5%), compared with 35 male bearers (2.5%). 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 Kiyomi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kiyomi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 48.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (22.3%) and Hispanic (14.5%). 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 Kiyomi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Kiyomi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.0% (666 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 Kiyomi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kiyomi a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Kiyomi in the SSA data are female. 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 Kiyomi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kiyomi 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 Kiyomi 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 people have the name Kiyomi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.