Masao
Masao was last recorded in 2019, when 5 babies were given it; 1,018 Americans have been recorded with it between 1907 and 2019 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Masao by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Masao mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Masao is “a male given name from Japanese.”
Borrowed from Japanese まさお (Masao).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Masao?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,423, in 2019; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
81 babies in 1918, the peak
Masao peaked in 1918, when 81 boys were given it, #705 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 5 | #13,423 | 2.8 |
| 2013 | 5 | #13,359 | 2.6 |
| 2011 | 8 | #9,313 | 4.2 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,396 | 3.9 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,403 | 2.3 |
| 1941 | 6 | #3,374 | 4.9 |
| 1940 | 5 | #3,773 | 4.3 |
| 1938 | 11 | #2,276 | 9.9 |
| 1937 | 10 | #2,422 | 9.4 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,060 | 6.7 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | 12 | #2,203 | 11.5 |
| 1934 | 8 | #2,874 | 7.7 |
| 1933 | 13 | #2,058 | 13.1 |
| 1932 | 19 | #1,693 | 18.2 |
| 1931 | 10 | #2,584 | 9.6 |
| 1930 | 24 | #1,519 | 21.9 |
| 1929 | 24 | #1,508 | 22.3 |
| 1928 | 31 | #1,318 | 28.0 |
| 1927 | 33 | #1,286 | 29.3 |
| 1926 | 34 | #1,258 | 30.6 |
| 1925 | 36 | #1,196 | 32.3 |
| 1924 | 59 | #913 | 52.1 |
| 1923 | 57 | #910 | 52.0 |
| 1922 | 68 | #825 | 62.5 |
| 1921 | 60 | #906 | 54.5 |
| 1920 | 51 | #969 | 47.9 |
| 1919 | 63 | #827 | 64.3 |
| 1918 | 81 | #705 | 79.9 |
| 1917 | 61 | #816 | 65.9 |
| 1916 | 57 | #830 | 64.0 |
| 1915 | 42 | #975 | 49.5 |
| 1914 | 40 | #862 | 61.1 |
| 1913 | 28 | #944 | 54.6 |
| 1912 | 23 | #959 | 53.5 |
| 1911 | 5 | #1,911 | 22.1 |
| 1908 | 5 | #1,526 | 32.4 |
| 1907 | 5 | #1,473 | 34.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Masao a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Masao has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 37 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Masao: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Masao, and how old are they?
An estimated 45 Americans named Masao and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 418 people named Masao (4 women and girls, 414 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 79 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.3 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 Masao born?
The states with the most babies named Masao are Hawaii, California and Washington, with 99% 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 | 519 | not ranked | 131.2× |
| California | 323 | not ranked | 9.7× |
| Washington | 29 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| Oregon | 5 | not ranked | 0.7× |
Where Masao is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Masao is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1910 it was given 131.2 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 Masao 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 3,884 babies since 1880, Masao is the second most given (26% of them). In 2025 none of their 242 babies recorded by SSA was a Masao (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Masao
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 Masao and names like it
- Compare Masao and MasiahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sMasao peaked in 1918.
- Hawaii’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Masao since 1910.
- Japanese namesWiktionary’s origin for Masao: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Masao.
- Names starting with MMost given first.