Masaki
A masculine Japanese given name containing the character elements "ma" (真) meaning "true" and "ki" (暉) meaning "radiance".
Name Census estimates that about 231 living Americans carry the first name Masaki. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Masaki today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Masaki births was 2006 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Masaki. 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.
People living today
231
~ 1 in 1,483,785 Americans
Peak year
2006
11 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2022 SSA rank
#11,778
Tracked since 1919
Census
Masaki in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 578 people with the first name Masaki, which placed it at #18,590 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
#18,590
National first-name rank
People counted
578
578 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
86.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Masaki
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Masaki is Asian/Pacific Islander at 86.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.2%) and White (2.6%). 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 Masaki 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 Masaki at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander86.2% · 498
- Two or more races9.2% · 53
- White2.6% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 8
- Black or African American0.5% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Masaki: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Masaki from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 66 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Masaki 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 Masaki during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Masakis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Masaki
The given name Masaki has its origins in the Japanese language. It is a combination of two distinct words – "masa" which translates to "truth" or "righteousness", and "ki" which means "tree" or "wood". The name can be interpreted as "true tree" or "righteous tree".
Historically, the name Masaki emerged during the Heian period in Japan, spanning from the late 8th to the late 12th century. It was a popular choice among the aristocratic class and samurai warriors of that era, symbolizing virtues like honesty, integrity, and strength.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Masaki can be found in the Kokin Wakashū, an imperial anthology of Japanese waka poetry compiled in the early 10th century. The name appears in several poems, suggesting its prevalence during that time.
Notable historical figures who bore the name Masaki include Masaki Naomori, a renowned 16th-century samurai and military strategist who played a significant role in the Sengoku period. Another prominent individual was Masaki Anjin, a 17th-century Japanese explorer and navigator who traveled to various parts of Southeast Asia and is credited with introducing several Western technologies to Japan.
In the realm of literature, Masaki Rokunami was a celebrated 18th-century Japanese poet and calligrapher who contributed greatly to the development of the haiku form. His works are still widely studied and admired today.
Moving into the 19th century, Masaki Naohiko was a prominent Japanese politician and diplomat who played a crucial role in negotiating treaties with Western powers during the Bakumatsu period. He is remembered for his efforts in modernizing Japan's foreign relations.
Lastly, Masaki Batō was a prominent Japanese painter and printmaker active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works, which combined traditional Japanese styles with Western influences, are highly regarded and can be found in numerous art museums around the world.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Masaki, a name steeped in cultural significance and representing virtues that have been held in high esteem in Japanese society for centuries.
People
Masaki + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Masaki as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Masaki: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Masaki?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 231 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Masaki 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 1,483,785 US residents.
Is Masaki a common name?
We classify Masaki as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 257 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Masaki most popular?
The single biggest year for Masaki was 2006, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Masaki is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Masaki in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 578 people with the name Masaki, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,590 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 Masaki 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 Masaki?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Masaki leans strongly male. 547 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 28 female bearers (4.9%). 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 Masaki?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Masaki is Asian/Pacific Islander at 86.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.2%) and White (2.6%). 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 Masaki most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Masaki in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.2% (498 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 Masaki in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Masaki a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Masaki 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 Masaki still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Masaki 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 Masaki 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 Masaki?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.