Kazuo
A masculine Japanese given name meaning "peaceful harmony".
Name Census estimates that about 61 living Americans carry the first name Kazuo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kazuo today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kazuo births was 1921 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kazuo. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Kazuo is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Kazuos were born before 1970.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Kazuo. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
61
~ 1 in 5,618,924 Americans
Peak year
1921
57 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2009 SSA rank
#10,458
Tracked since 1911
Census
Kazuo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 523 people with the first name Kazuo, which placed it at #19,947 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#19,947
National first-name rank
People counted
523
523 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
85.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kazuo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kazuo is Asian/Pacific Islander at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Hispanic (2.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kazuo described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kazuo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander85.5% · 447
- Two or more races9.4% · 49
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 15
- White1.9% · 10
- Black or African American0.4% · 2
Popularity
Kazuo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kazuo from the 1910s through to the 2000s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 375 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kazuo by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Kazuo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kazuos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Hawaii, California, Washington recorded the most babies named Kazuo, while Washington, California, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 200 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kazuo
Kazuo is a masculine Japanese given name. It originates from the Japanese language and has been in use since at least the 8th century AD. The name is composed of two kanji characters: "kazu" meaning number or many, and "o" meaning male or masculine.
The earliest known written records of the name Kazuo date back to the Nara period of Japanese history, from around 710-794 AD. During this time, the name likely held significance related to the desire for many sons or male offspring.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Kazuo was Kazuo Hiragishi, a Japanese samurai warrior who lived in the late 12th century. He served under the famous shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo and fought in the Genpei War between the Minamoto and Taira clans.
Another notable Kazuo from history was Kazuo Inoue, a Japanese painter and woodblock print artist who lived from 1828 to 1896. He is regarded as one of the last great masters of the ukiyo-e art form in Japan.
In the 20th century, Kazuo Ishiguro was a renowned British novelist of Japanese descent, born in 1954. He is best known for his novel "The Remains of the Day" and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017.
Kazuo Ohno, born in 1906 and died in 2010, was a prominent Japanese dancer and choreographer. He is considered one of the founders of the butoh dance style and had a significant influence on modern dance in Japan.
Kazuo Masuda was a Japanese serial killer who committed a series of murders in the 1960s. He was convicted of killing at least five people and was executed by hanging in 1970.
While the name Kazuo has deep historical roots, it continues to be a popular given name for boys in Japan today, carrying on the cultural significance and heritage of this traditional Japanese name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Kazuo
People
Kazuo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kazuo as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kazuo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kazuo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 61 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kazuo going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 5,618,924 US residents.
Is Kazuo a common name?
We classify Kazuo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 757 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kazuo most popular?
The single biggest year for Kazuo was 1921, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kazuo is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kazuo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 523 people with the name Kazuo, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,947 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kazuo in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kazuo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kazuo appears almost entirely male. Of the 527 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kazuo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kazuo is Asian/Pacific Islander at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Hispanic (2.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kazuo most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Kazuo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.5% (447 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Kazuo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kazuo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kazuo in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Kazuo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kazuo in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Kazuo can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Kazuo?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.