Akira
Akira is given to both girls and boys: 257 girls and 52 boys were given it in 2025 (#983 among girls’ names and #2,539 among boys’, #1,653 among all names counting both); 9,837 Americans have been recorded with it since 1913 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,160 Americans named Akira and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Akira by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Akira mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Akira is “a female given name from Japanese (uncommon)”
Also “a male given name from Japanese.”
Borrowed from Japanese あきら (Akira).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Akira?
#983 among girls’ names, 2025
Akira rose from #1,026 in 2015 to #983 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.15 to 0.16 per 1,000.
453 babies in 2008, the peak
Akira peaked in 2008, when 453 babies were given it (424 girls, #707 among girls’ names). The 309 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 68% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 257 | #983 | 52 | #2,539 |
| 2024 | 274 | #952 | 54 | #2,504 |
| 2023 | 248 | #1,018 | 49 | #2,659 |
| 2022 | 190 | #1,259 | 45 | #2,828 |
| 2021 | 204 | #1,191 | 43 | #2,863 |
| 2020 | 205 | #1,152 | 46 | #2,688 |
| 2019 | 210 | #1,145 | 30 | #3,638 |
| 2018 | 215 | #1,135 | 45 | #2,710 |
| 2017 | 251 | #1,030 | 25 | #4,104 |
| 2016 | 261 | #1,014 | 24 | #4,201 |
Every recorded year (84)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 260 | #1,026 | 34 | #3,298 |
| 2014 | 233 | #1,092 | 35 | #3,152 |
| 2013 | 229 | #1,080 | 24 | #4,065 |
| 2012 | 265 | #958 | 27 | #3,806 |
| 2011 | 275 | #938 | 35 | #3,166 |
| 2010 | 322 | #835 | 34 | #3,241 |
| 2009 | 345 | #819 | 32 | #3,398 |
| 2008 | 424 | #707 | 29 | #3,646 |
| 2007 | 336 | #845 | 35 | #3,186 |
| 2006 | 270 | #970 | 37 | #2,980 |
| 2005 | 229 | #1,043 | 28 | #3,446 |
| 2004 | 199 | #1,143 | 45 | #2,449 |
| 2003 | 213 | #1,056 | 42 | #2,467 |
| 2002 | 242 | #923 | 45 | #2,291 |
| 2001 | 202 | #1,055 | 37 | #2,558 |
| 2000 | 165 | #1,201 | 37 | #2,521 |
| 1999 | 179 | #1,106 | 40 | #2,261 |
| 1998 | 183 | #1,065 | 41 | #2,197 |
| 1997 | 143 | #1,241 | 27 | #2,821 |
| 1996 | 92 | #1,654 | 32 | #2,439 |
| 1995 | 82 | #1,759 | 23 | #3,017 |
| 1994 | 55 | #2,348 | 18 | #3,591 |
| 1993 | 69 | #2,008 | 11 | #5,001 |
| 1992 | 59 | #2,234 | 21 | #3,099 |
| 1991 | 46 | #2,614 | 12 | #4,478 |
| 1990 | 47 | #2,518 | 17 | #3,463 |
| 1989 | 30 | #3,399 | 28 | #2,353 |
| 1988 | 22 | #4,011 | 11 | #4,162 |
| 1987 | 34 | #2,851 | 19 | #2,722 |
| 1986 | 41 | #2,421 | 19 | #2,683 |
| 1985 | 29 | #3,085 | 18 | #2,709 |
| 1984 | 32 | #2,780 | 13 | #3,271 |
| 1983 | 50 | #2,021 | 19 | #2,492 |
| 1982 | 33 | #2,770 | 13 | #3,286 |
| 1981 | 11 | #5,889 | 14 | #3,032 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,115 | 6 | #5,538 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,432 | 8 | #4,413 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,461 | 7 | #4,561 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,351 | 12 | #3,203 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,492 | 8 | #3,947 |
| 1974 | under 5 | 5 | #5,238 | |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,445 | under 5 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 7 | #3,967 | |
| 1970 | under 5 | 7 | #3,840 | |
| 1967 | under 5 | 5 | #3,973 | |
| 1964 | under 5 | 5 | #4,049 | |
| 1962 | under 5 | 5 | #4,040 | |
| 1939 | under 5 | 9 | #2,450 | |
| 1938 | under 5 | 8 | #2,650 | |
| 1937 | under 5 | 5 | #3,525 | |
| 1936 | under 5 | 7 | #2,857 | |
| 1935 | under 5 | 10 | #2,396 | |
| 1934 | under 5 | 12 | #2,123 | |
| 1933 | under 5 | 7 | #3,006 | |
| 1932 | under 5 | 17 | #1,779 | |
| 1931 | under 5 | 26 | #1,362 | |
| 1930 | under 5 | 18 | #1,755 | |
| 1929 | under 5 | 34 | #1,196 | |
| 1928 | under 5 | 36 | #1,188 | |
| 1927 | under 5 | 54 | #938 | |
| 1926 | under 5 | 27 | #1,404 | |
| 1925 | under 5 | 29 | #1,360 | |
| 1924 | under 5 | 35 | #1,223 | |
| 1923 | under 5 | 36 | #1,195 | |
| 1922 | under 5 | 39 | #1,140 | |
| 1921 | under 5 | 32 | #1,297 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 20 | #1,748 | |
| 1919 | under 5 | 29 | #1,321 | |
| 1918 | under 5 | 31 | #1,256 | |
| 1917 | under 5 | 13 | #2,188 | |
| 1916 | under 5 | 16 | #1,850 | |
| 1915 | under 5 | 14 | #1,968 | |
| 1914 | under 5 | 8 | #2,458 | |
| 1913 | under 5 | 8 | #2,093 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Akira a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 9,837 Americans recorded as Akira, 79% are girls and 21% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Akira: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Akira, and how old are they?
9,160 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 9,837 Americans ever recorded as Akira. The median Akira alive today is 17 years old; half are between 9 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 7,291 people named Akira (5,369 women and girls, 1,922 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,617 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 13 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 8 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 112 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 988 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,510 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,520 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Akira born?
The states with the most babies named Akira are California, Texas and Florida, with 43% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 52 | #732 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 32 | #1,121 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 19 | #1,057 | 0.8× |
| New York | 17 | #905 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 17 | #783 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 13 | #749 | 1.3× |
| Arizona | 11 | #579 | 0.4× |
| Missouri | 9 | #592 | 0.4× |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,018 | 1.0× |
| Virginia | 7 | #942 | 1.2× |
Where Akira is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Akira is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1913 it was given 5.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Akira with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 12,164 babies since 1880, Akira is the most given (81% of them). In 2025 it was given to 309 of their 330 babies (94%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Akira
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Akira and names like it
- Compare Akira and AkyraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAkira peaked in 2008.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Akira since 1910.
- Japanese namesWiktionary’s origin for Akira: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Akira.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Akira alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.