Yi
Yi is given to both girls and boys: 10 girls and 14 boys were given it in 2025 (#10,081 among girls’ names and #6,431 among boys’, #9,365 among all names counting both); 486 Americans have been recorded with it since 1980 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Yi?
#6,431 among boys’ names, 2025
Yi fell from #5,981 in 2015 to #6,431 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 7.8 to 8.2 per million.
25 babies in 2018, the peak
Yi peaked in 2018, when 25 boys were given it, #4,215 among boys’ names. The 24 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 96% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | #10,081 | 14 | #6,431 |
| 2024 | 8 | #12,115 | 12 | #7,234 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,581 | 12 | #7,270 |
| 2022 | 9 | #11,201 | 15 | #6,137 |
| 2021 | under 5 | 11 | #7,560 | |
| 2020 | 7 | #13,408 | 14 | #6,278 |
| 2019 | 8 | #12,407 | 15 | #6,088 |
| 2018 | under 5 | 25 | #4,215 | |
| 2017 | 6 | #15,826 | 13 | #6,661 |
| 2016 | 8 | #12,833 | 11 | #7,583 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 9 | #11,801 | 15 | #5,981 |
| 2014 | under 5 | 11 | #7,532 | |
| 2013 | under 5 | 15 | #5,905 | |
| 2012 | under 5 | 11 | #7,526 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 8 | #9,567 | |
| 2010 | 5 | #19,739 | 5 | #14,186 |
| 2009 | under 5 | 7 | #10,938 | |
| 2008 | 6 | #17,430 | under 5 | |
| 2007 | 7 | #15,422 | 9 | #8,884 |
| 2006 | 10 | #11,386 | under 5 | |
| 2005 | 8 | #12,968 | under 5 | |
| 2004 | 11 | #9,869 | 6 | #11,310 |
| 2003 | 6 | #15,731 | 8 | #8,609 |
| 2002 | under 5 | 7 | #9,366 | |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,992 | under 5 | |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,988 | under 5 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 9 | #7,114 | |
| 1998 | 5 | #16,542 | 5 | #11,280 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,690 | 8 | #7,258 |
| 1996 | 5 | #15,837 | under 5 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 7 | #7,775 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 5 | #10,206 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 9 | #6,113 | |
| 1991 | 5 | #15,427 | 6 | #8,210 |
| 1988 | 7 | #10,371 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | under 5 | 5 | #7,322 | |
| 1983 | 5 | #12,046 | 6 | #6,220 |
| 1980 | 5 | #12,139 | under 5 |
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 Yi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 486 Americans recorded as Yi, 37% are girls and 63% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Yi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yi, and how old are they?
An estimated 479 Americans named Yi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 6 and 23. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 11,132 people named Yi (6,078 women and girls, 5,054 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 364 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30.6 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 1,907 babies since 1880, Yi is the second most given (25% of them). In 2025 it was given to 24 of their 33 babies (73%), the most given that year.
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 Yi
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 Yi and names like it
- Compare Yi and YuBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sYi peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yi since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Yi.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Yi alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with YMost given first.