Yoshi
A masculine Japanese name meaning "good luck" or "fortunate".
Name Census estimates that about 261 living Americans carry the first name Yoshi. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 70.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Yoshi today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yoshi births was 2022 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yoshi. 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 Yoshi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
261
~ 1 in 1,313,235 Americans
Peak year
2022
19 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,930
Tracked since 1914
Census
Yoshi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 746 people with the first name Yoshi, which placed it at #15,424 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
#15,424
National first-name rank
People counted
746
746 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
53.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yoshi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yoshi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 53.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and Two or More Races (11.1%). 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 Yoshi 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 Yoshi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander53.6% · 400
- Hispanic or Latino19.2% · 143
- Two or more races11.1% · 83
- Black or African American9.5% · 71
- White6.2% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Yoshi
Yoshi is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 303 total registrations, 212 (70.0%) were male and 91 (30.0%) were female.
Yoshi as a male name
- Ranked #8,930 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (17 births)
Yoshi as a female name
- Ranked #17,672 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1919 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yoshi on both sides of the split. Of the 743 people counted with this name, 448 were male (60.3%) and 295 were female (39.7%).
Popularity
Yoshi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yoshi from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 96 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Yoshi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yoshi 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 Yoshi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yoshis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yoshi
The name Yoshi has its roots in Japanese culture and language. It is a unisex name that can be given to both boys and girls. The origin of the name can be traced back to the Japanese word "yoshimitsu," which means "good luck" or "good fortune."
The name Yoshi has been in use for centuries in Japan, and its earliest recorded use can be found in ancient Japanese texts and historical records. One of the earliest known bearers of this name was Yoshi Masatsura, a renowned Japanese poet who lived in the 14th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Yoshi. One of the most famous was Yoshi Akiko, a Japanese novelist and feminist activist who lived from 1878 to 1942. Her works explored themes of gender equality and women's rights in Japan.
Another notable figure was Yoshi Hirokazu, a Japanese samurai warrior who lived during the 16th century. He was renowned for his bravery and skill in battle and played a significant role in several important military campaigns of that era.
In the realm of sports, Yoshi Unohana was a Japanese judoka who competed in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He won a gold medal in the men's heavyweight division, cementing his place in Japanese sporting history.
Yoshi Sakamoto was a Japanese-American artist and illustrator who lived from 1923 to 1999. He is best known for his work in the field of children's literature, where his vibrant and imaginative illustrations brought countless stories to life.
Throughout its long history, the name Yoshi has been a popular choice in Japan, reflecting the cultural significance and positive associations attached to it. While its use may have evolved over time, the name continues to hold a special place in Japanese culture and tradition.
People
Yoshi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yoshi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yoshi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yoshi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 261 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yoshi 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 1,313,235 US residents.
Is Yoshi a common name?
We classify Yoshi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 303 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yoshi most popular?
The single biggest year for Yoshi was 2022, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yoshi 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 Yoshi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 746 people with the name Yoshi, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,424 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 Yoshi 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 Yoshi?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yoshi on both sides of the split. Of the 743 people counted with this name, 448 were male (60.3%) and 295 were female (39.7%). 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 Yoshi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yoshi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 53.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.2%) and Two or More Races (11.1%). 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 Yoshi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Yoshi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.6% (400 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 Yoshi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yoshi a male name?
Yes, 70.0% of people registered as Yoshi 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 Yoshi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yoshi 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 Yoshi 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 are called Yoshi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.