Shingo
A Japanese masculine name formed from 'shin' meaning "truth, spirit" and 'go' meaning "protect".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Shingo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Shingo today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shingo births was 1981 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shingo. 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 Shingo with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Shingo. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1981
6 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2004 SSA rank
#12,942
Tracked since 1925
Census
Shingo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 265 people with the first name Shingo, which placed it at #32,010 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
#32,010
National first-name rank
People counted
265
265 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
88.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shingo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shingo is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and White (2.6%). 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 Shingo 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 Shingo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander88.7% · 235
- Two or more races7.5% · 20
- White2.6% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 2
- Black or African American0.4% · 1
Popularity
Shingo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shingo from the 1920s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 16 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Shingo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shingo 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 Shingo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shingo
The name Shingo is of Japanese origin, derived from the Japanese words "shin" meaning "truth" or "faith," and "go" meaning "protector" or "guardian." It is a masculine name that gained popularity in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868).
Shingo has its roots in Shintoism, the indigenous religion of Japan. In Shinto mythology, the name is associated with the concept of protecting and upholding the truth and the sacred values of the faith. It was often given to boys with the hope that they would grow up to be virtuous and truthful individuals, upholding the principles of honor and integrity.
The earliest recorded use of the name Shingo can be traced back to the 8th century CE, when it appeared in historical records of noble Japanese families. During the Heian period (794-1185), the name was particularly popular among the samurai class, who valued the qualities of truthfulness, loyalty, and bravery in battle.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Shingo was Shingo Tokugawa (1569-1620), a famous daimyo (feudal lord) and military commander during the Sengoku period. He played a crucial role in the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the unification of Japan under the rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Another prominent figure was Shingo Yamaguchi (1909-1994), a Japanese naval officer who served in World War II. He is best known for his role in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where he commanded the Japanese battleship Yamato, one of the largest and most powerful battleships ever built.
In the field of literature, Shingo Sato (1904-1983) was a renowned Japanese novelist and playwright. He is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Japanese literature and is best known for his novel "Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita" (Under the Full Blooms in the Cherry Blossom Forest), which explores the themes of love, loss, and the human condition.
Shingo Kunieda (born 1984) is a modern-day figure who has achieved international recognition as a professional wheelchair tennis player. He has won multiple Grand Slam titles and has been ranked as the world's number one player in the quad singles division for several years.
Shingo Natsume (1932-2018) was a renowned Japanese film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the Japanese New Wave cinema movement of the 1960s and for his films that explored social and political themes, such as "Kuroi Ame" (Black Rain), which dealt with the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
People
Shingo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shingo as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shingo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shingo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shingo 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 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Shingo a common name?
We classify Shingo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shingo most popular?
The single biggest year for Shingo was 1981, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shingo is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shingo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 265 people with the name Shingo, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,010 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 Shingo 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 Shingo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shingo appears almost entirely male. Of the 264 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Shingo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shingo is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and White (2.6%). 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 Shingo most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Shingo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.7% (235 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 Shingo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shingo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shingo 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 Shingo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shingo 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 Shingo 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 are named Shingo?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.