Yuki
A feminine Japanese name meaning "snow, happiness, or luck".
Name Census estimates that about 1,527 living Americans carry the first name Yuki. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 65.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Yuki today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yuki births was 2004 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yuki. 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 Yuki with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 224,463 Americans
Peak year
2004
56 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,539
Tracked since 1915
Census
Yuki in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,489 people with the first name Yuki, which placed it at #5,054 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
#5,054
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,489 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
85.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yuki
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yuki is Asian/Pacific Islander at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.0%) and White (3.8%). 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 Yuki 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 Yuki at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander85.4% · 2,980
- Two or more races7.0% · 244
- White3.8% · 134
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 101
- Black or African American0.7% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Yuki
Yuki is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,596 total registrations, 554 (34.7%) were male and 1,042 (65.3%) were female.
Yuki as a male name
- Ranked #6,800 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (25 births)
Yuki as a female name
- Ranked #4,539 in 2024
- 31 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (43 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yuki on both sides of the split. Of the 3,495 people counted with this name, 953 were male (27.3%) and 2,542 were female (72.7%).
Popularity
Yuki: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yuki from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 450 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Yuki remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yuki 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 Yuki during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yukis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Yuki, while Texas, New Jersey, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 109 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Yuki
The name Yuki is a Japanese name that has its origins in the word "yuki" which means "snow" in Japanese. It is a unisex name, used for both boys and girls. The name has been in use in Japan for centuries, with records of its usage dating back to ancient times.
In ancient Japanese folklore and literature, Yuki was often used as a symbolic name representing purity, innocence, and beauty, much like the delicate and pristine nature of snow. The name was frequently given to characters or individuals who embodied these qualities or were associated with winter or snowy landscapes.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Yuki was a famous Japanese poet and calligrapher who lived during the Heian period (794-1185 CE). Yuki no Akebono, also known as Yuki, was renowned for her beautiful and evocative waka poetry, which often drew inspiration from the natural world and the changing seasons.
In the Edo period (1603-1867 CE), there was a famous Kabuki actor named Yuki Sōgatayū who was widely acclaimed for his performances and contributions to the development of Kabuki theater. He was born in 1650 and is remembered as one of the most influential Kabuki actors of his time.
Another notable individual with the name Yuki was Yuki Kawauchi, a Japanese long-distance runner who won the Boston Marathon in 2018. Born in 1986, Kawauchi is known for his humble demeanor and his dedication to running, often training while working a full-time job.
In the world of Japanese literature, Yuki Tsuruga was a celebrated author and poet who lived from 1926 to 2015. Her works often explored themes of nature, femininity, and the human experience, earning her numerous literary awards and accolades.
Lastly, Yuki Bhambri is an Indian tennis player who has represented India in major international tournaments. Born in 1992, she has achieved a career-high ranking of 195 in singles and has won several titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.
People
Yuki + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yuki 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
Yuki: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yuki?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,527 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yuki 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 224,463 US residents.
Is Yuki a common name?
We classify Yuki as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,596 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yuki most popular?
The single biggest year for Yuki was 2004, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yuki is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yuki in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,489 people with the name Yuki, or 1.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,054 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 Yuki 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 Yuki?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Yuki on both sides of the split. Of the 3,495 people counted with this name, 953 were male (27.3%) and 2,542 were female (72.7%). 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 Yuki?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yuki is Asian/Pacific Islander at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.0%) and White (3.8%). 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 Yuki most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Yuki in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.4% (2,980 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 Yuki in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yuki a female name?
Yes, 65.3% of people registered as Yuki 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 Yuki still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yuki 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 Yuki 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 Yuki?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.