Yao — boys' name

What the Data Says About Yao

The Social Security Administration has registered 108 babies named Yao between 1984 and 2023, spanning 40 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Yao currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 2023. The name reached its historical peak in 1984, when 10 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Yao performed strongest in the 2000s, accumulating 42 births during that ten-year window. Across the 5 decades of recorded activity, Yao shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 11 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by . In total, SSA state-level files list Yao in 1 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Yao in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 108 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.