Kato
Kato was given to 49 boys in 2025, #2,664 among boys’ names; 860 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kato by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kato?
#2,664 among boys’ names, 2025
Kato fell from #2,625 in 2015 to #2,664 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 24.5 to 28.7 per million.
57 babies in 2022, the peak
Kato peaked in 2022, when 57 boys were given it, #2,454 among boys’ names. The 49 births of 2025 are 86% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 49 | #2,664 | 28.7 |
| 2024 | 46 | #2,814 | 26.7 |
| 2023 | 50 | #2,634 | 29.2 |
| 2022 | 57 | #2,454 | 32.6 |
| 2021 | 34 | #3,389 | 19.4 |
| 2020 | 52 | #2,486 | 30.1 |
| 2019 | 51 | #2,565 | 28.4 |
| 2018 | 48 | #2,625 | 26.4 |
| 2017 | 31 | #3,546 | 16.7 |
| 2016 | 30 | #3,645 | 15.8 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 47 | #2,625 | 24.5 |
| 2014 | 34 | #3,269 | 17.7 |
| 2013 | 36 | #3,094 | 19.0 |
| 2012 | 27 | #3,838 | 14.2 |
| 2011 | 20 | #4,749 | 10.5 |
| 2010 | 13 | #6,540 | 6.8 |
| 2009 | 13 | #6,632 | 6.6 |
| 2008 | 15 | #5,925 | 7.4 |
| 2007 | 14 | #6,098 | 6.7 |
| 2006 | 17 | #5,189 | 8.3 |
| 2005 | 9 | #7,993 | 4.5 |
| 2004 | 9 | #7,875 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 10 | #6,989 | 5.1 |
| 2001 | 13 | #5,520 | 6.7 |
| 2000 | 5 | #11,305 | 2.5 |
| 1999 | 7 | #8,298 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 7 | #8,022 | 3.7 |
| 1997 | 6 | #8,710 | 3.2 |
| 1996 | 15 | #4,282 | 7.9 |
| 1995 | 13 | #4,654 | 6.8 |
| 1994 | 10 | #5,670 | 5.2 |
| 1993 | 6 | #8,149 | 3.1 |
| 1986 | 6 | #6,329 | 3.3 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,781 | 2.8 |
| 1980 | 10 | #3,992 | 5.6 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,296 | 3.0 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,807 | 3.8 |
| 1949 | 6 | #3,516 | 3.4 |
| 1927 | 6 | #3,980 | 5.3 |
| 1924 | 5 | #4,680 | 4.4 |
| 1920 | 7 | #3,654 | 6.6 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,493 | 4.9 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,513 | 7.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kato a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kato has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kato: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kato, and how old are they?
An estimated 819 Americans named Kato and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 16. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 638 people named Kato (52 women and girls, 586 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 549 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 2,949 babies since 1880, Kato is the second most given (29% of them). In 2025 it was given to 49 of their 170 babies (29%), again the second 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 Kato
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 Kato and names like it
- Compare Kato and KaitoBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKato peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kato since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Kato.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kato alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.