Torii
A Japanese name referring to a traditional gateway structure in Shinto shrines.
Name Census estimates that about 94 living Americans carry the first name Torii. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Torii today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Torii births was 2003 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Torii. 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 Torii. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
94
~ 1 in 3,646,323 Americans
Peak year
2003
13 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2007 SSA rank
#12,217
Tracked since 1970
Census
Torii in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 221 people with the first name Torii, which placed it at #36,071 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
#36,071
National first-name rank
People counted
221
221 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Torii
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Torii is White at 50.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.1%) and Two or More Races (11.3%). 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 Torii 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 Torii at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.2% · 111
- Black or African American23.1% · 51
- Two or more races11.3% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.6% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Torii
Torii leans heavily female at 82.3% of total registrations, but 17 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Torii as a male name
- Ranked #12,217 in 2007
- 6 male births in 2007
- Peak: 2003 (6 births)
Torii as a female name
- Ranked #17,462 in 2021
- 5 female births in 2021
- Peak: 2016 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Torii on both sides of the split. Of the 215 people counted with this name, 65 were male (30.2%) and 150 were female (69.8%).
Popularity
Torii: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Torii from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 30 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Torii remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Torii 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 Torii 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 Torii
The name Torii has its origins in Japanese culture. It is believed to have derived from the word "tori," which means "bird" in Japanese. The earliest recorded use of the name Torii dates back to the 8th century AD, during the Nara period in Japan.
Torii is closely associated with the traditional Japanese Shinto religion. In Shinto shrines, a torii gate is a distinctive architectural feature that marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. These gates, often made of wood or stone, have a symbolic meaning and are believed to represent the entrance to the sacred space.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Torii was Torii Hiranao, a Japanese samurai and military commander who lived from 1579 to 1628. He served under the famous Tokugawa shogunate and played a significant role in the Siege of Osaka in 1615.
Another notable figure was Torii Kiyonobu I, a Japanese ukiyo-e artist and woodblock print designer who lived from 1664 to 1729. He was a prominent figure in the Torii school of ukiyo-e art and is known for his influential works depicting kabuki actors and scenes from traditional Japanese theater.
In the 19th century, Torii Yozo I was a renowned Japanese potter and ceramist who lived from 1838 to 1905. He was a pioneer of the Ohi-yaki pottery style and is credited with reviving and preserving traditional Japanese ceramic techniques.
Torii Ryuzo was a Japanese physicist and engineer who lived from 1870 to 1953. He made significant contributions to the development of wireless technology and is considered one of the founders of radio engineering in Japan.
In more recent history, Torii Yasunari was a Japanese writer and poet who lived from 1923 to 1993. He is best known for his novel "The Scorpion," which explores themes of isolation and existentialism in post-war Japan.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Torii
People
Torii + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Torii as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Torii: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Torii?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 94 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Torii 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 3,646,323 US residents.
Is Torii a common name?
We classify Torii as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 96 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Torii most popular?
The single biggest year for Torii was 2003, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Torii is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Torii in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 221 people with the name Torii, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,071 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 Torii 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 Torii?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Torii on both sides of the split. Of the 215 people counted with this name, 65 were male (30.2%) and 150 were female (69.8%). 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 Torii?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Torii is White at 50.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.1%) and Two or More Races (11.3%). 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 Torii most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Torii in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.2% (111 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 Torii in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Torii a female name?
Yes, 82.3% of people registered as Torii 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 Torii still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Torii 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 Torii 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 share the name Torii?
Want to know how many people have the name Torii? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.