Miko
A Japanese feminine name referring to a Shinto shrine maiden.
Name Census estimates that about 1,480 living Americans carry the first name Miko. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 61.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Miko today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Miko births was 2023 (97 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Miko. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Miko with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Miko was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
- • Miko sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 231,591 Americans
Peak year
2023
97 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,455
Tracked since 1963
Census
Miko in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,378 people with the first name Miko, which placed it at #9,877 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
#9,877
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,378 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
23.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Miko
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miko is Black at 23.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.9%) and White (18.1%). 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 Miko 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 Miko at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American23.1% · 318
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.9% · 316
- White18.1% · 250
- Two or more races16.9% · 233
- Hispanic or Latino16.7% · 230
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Miko
Miko is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,521 total registrations, 931 (61.2%) were male and 590 (38.8%) were female.
Miko as a male name
- Ranked #2,455 in 2024
- 56 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (78 births)
Miko as a female name
- Ranked #12,982 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (30 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Miko on both sides of the split. Of the 1,381 people counted with this name, 767 were male (55.5%) and 614 were female (44.5%).
Popularity
Miko: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Miko from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 425 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Miko 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 Miko during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mikos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Miko, while Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 43 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Miko
The name Miko is a Japanese given name derived from the Japanese word "miko," meaning "shinto shrine maiden" or "priestess." It originated in ancient Japan, where young girls were chosen to serve at Shinto shrines and assist with religious ceremonies and rituals.
The earliest recorded use of the name Miko can be traced back to the 8th century, during the Nara period in Japan. At this time, Shinto shrines played a significant role in Japanese culture, and the miko were highly respected for their purity and spiritual connection.
In Japanese mythology, there are several references to miko. One notable example is the story of Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, who was served by her attendant miko. This mythos highlights the importance of miko in Japanese religious traditions.
Throughout Japanese history, there have been several notable individuals named Miko. One of the earliest was Miko no Suke, a 12th-century female writer and poet who served as a miko at the Ise Grand Shrine. Her works, which included waka poetry, provided valuable insights into the lives of miko during the Heian period (794-1185 CE).
Another famous Miko was Miko Kuraki, a Japanese singer and actress born in 1983. She rose to prominence in the late 1990s and has since released numerous successful albums, solidifying her status as a prominent figure in Japanese pop culture.
In the realm of sports, Miko Miyazawa (born 1976) is a retired Japanese gymnast who won multiple medals, including a gold medal in the team competition at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Miko Hughes (born 1986) is an American former child actor best known for his roles in films such as "Kindergarten Cop" and "Full House." He gained recognition for his acting talents at a young age.
Miko Peled (born 1961) is an Israeli-American author and activist who advocates for Palestinian rights. He is the son of an Israeli military general and has been a vocal critic of Israeli policies towards Palestinians.
The name Miko has a rich cultural and historical significance, rooted in ancient Japanese traditions and mythology. Its association with Shinto shrine maidens and spiritual purity has made it a popular name choice for generations of Japanese parents.
People
Miko + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Miko as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Miko: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Miko?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,480 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Miko 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 231,591 US residents.
Is Miko a common name?
We classify Miko as "Rare". It ranks above 92.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,521 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Miko most popular?
The single biggest year for Miko was 2023, when 97 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Miko is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Miko in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,378 people with the name Miko, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,877 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 Miko 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 Miko?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Miko on both sides of the split. Of the 1,381 people counted with this name, 767 were male (55.5%) and 614 were female (44.5%). 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 Miko?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miko is Black at 23.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.9%) and White (18.1%). 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 Miko most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Miko in the 2020 Census, accounting for 23.1% (318 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 Miko in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Miko a male name?
Yes, 61.2% of people registered as Miko 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 Miko still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Miko 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 Miko 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 share the name Miko?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.