Kiyoshi
Kiyoshi was given to 9 boys in 2025, #8,614 among boys’ names; 1,241 Americans have been recorded with it since 1910 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kiyoshi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kiyoshi mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kiyoshi is “a male given name from Japanese.”
Borrowed from Japanese きよし (Kiyoshi).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kiyoshi?
#8,614 among boys’ names, 2025
Kiyoshi rose from #13,156 in 2015 to #8,614 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 2.6 to 5.3 per million.
66 babies in 1923, the peak
Kiyoshi peaked in 1923, when 66 boys were given it, #838 among boys’ names. The 9 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #8,614 | 5.3 |
| 2024 | 8 | #9,471 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 11 | #7,533 | 6.4 |
| 2022 | 9 | #8,677 | 5.2 |
| 2021 | 12 | #6,915 | 6.9 |
| 2020 | 7 | #10,133 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 13 | #6,618 | 7.2 |
| 2018 | 11 | #7,401 | 6.1 |
| 2017 | 8 | #9,329 | 4.3 |
| 2016 | 5 | #13,326 | 2.6 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 5 | #13,156 | 2.6 |
| 2014 | 11 | #7,321 | 5.7 |
| 2013 | 13 | #6,460 | 6.9 |
| 2012 | 9 | #8,557 | 4.7 |
| 2011 | 12 | #6,821 | 6.3 |
| 2010 | 12 | #6,912 | 6.3 |
| 2009 | 10 | #8,033 | 5.0 |
| 2008 | 12 | #7,000 | 5.9 |
| 2007 | 12 | #6,885 | 5.8 |
| 2006 | 9 | #8,423 | 4.4 |
| 2005 | 8 | #8,742 | 4.0 |
| 2004 | 6 | #10,738 | 3.0 |
| 2003 | 9 | #7,573 | 4.6 |
| 2002 | 10 | #6,811 | 5.2 |
| 2001 | 5 | #11,570 | 2.6 |
| 2000 | 6 | #9,772 | 3.1 |
| 1999 | 5 | #10,859 | 2.6 |
| 1998 | 6 | #9,116 | 3.1 |
| 1997 | 6 | #8,767 | 3.2 |
| 1996 | 16 | #4,107 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 5 | #9,658 | 2.6 |
| 1994 | 6 | #8,322 | 3.1 |
| 1993 | 6 | #8,200 | 3.1 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,986 | 3.0 |
| 1991 | 7 | #6,939 | 3.5 |
| 1990 | 5 | #8,862 | 2.4 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,948 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,875 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 6 | #6,563 | 3.2 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,677 | 3.8 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,879 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 8 | #4,645 | 4.6 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,458 | 3.7 |
| 1975 | 6 | #5,146 | 3.8 |
| 1970 | 5 | #5,111 | 2.7 |
| 1943 | 7 | #3,096 | 4.9 |
| 1941 | 5 | #3,776 | 4.1 |
| 1938 | 9 | #2,565 | 8.1 |
| 1937 | 7 | #3,048 | 6.6 |
| 1936 | 14 | #1,931 | 13.5 |
| 1935 | 10 | #2,464 | 9.6 |
| 1934 | 12 | #2,187 | 11.6 |
| 1933 | 18 | #1,681 | 18.2 |
| 1932 | 19 | #1,689 | 18.2 |
| 1931 | 18 | #1,745 | 17.3 |
| 1930 | 21 | #1,629 | 19.1 |
| 1929 | 18 | #1,833 | 16.7 |
| 1928 | 31 | #1,312 | 28.0 |
| 1927 | 38 | #1,170 | 33.7 |
| 1926 | 47 | #1,014 | 42.3 |
| 1925 | 60 | #863 | 53.8 |
| 1924 | 56 | #940 | 49.4 |
| 1923 | 66 | #838 | 60.2 |
| 1922 | 56 | #934 | 51.5 |
| 1921 | 53 | #964 | 48.1 |
| 1920 | 53 | #955 | 49.8 |
| 1919 | 53 | #923 | 54.1 |
| 1918 | 42 | #1,049 | 41.4 |
| 1917 | 38 | #1,087 | 41.1 |
| 1916 | 39 | #1,035 | 43.8 |
| 1915 | 31 | #1,173 | 36.5 |
| 1914 | 17 | #1,528 | 26.0 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,385 | 13.7 |
| 1912 | 9 | #1,819 | 20.9 |
| 1910 | 5 | #1,730 | 25.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kiyoshi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,241 Americans recorded as Kiyoshi, 1% are girls and 99% boys. In 2025 it went to 9 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kiyoshi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kiyoshi, and how old are they?
An estimated 392 Americans named Kiyoshi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (32% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 11 and 33. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 752 people named Kiyoshi (53 women and girls, 699 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 372 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.0 times 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).
Where are babies named Kiyoshi born?
The states with the most babies named Kiyoshi are Hawaii, California and Washington, with 100% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Hawaii and Washington are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | 398 | not ranked | 79.2× |
| California | 349 | not ranked | 4.5× |
| Washington | 15 | not ranked | 0.9× |
Where Kiyoshi is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kiyoshi is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1910 it was given 79.2 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 boys’ 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 Kiyoshi with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kiyoshi
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 Kiyoshi and names like it
- Compare Kiyoshi and HiroshiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sKiyoshi peaked in 1923.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kiyoshi since 1910.
- Japanese namesWiktionary’s origin for Kiyoshi: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1923The year the most babies were named Kiyoshi.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kiyoshi alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.