Sakai
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: an Orang Asli person
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/sɑˈkɑi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Sakai is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Japan than in any other country.
- JPJapan≈1 in 725(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 145K
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 87K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Japan (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 183 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 725 (inferred from the name graph)
≈170,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Japan, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Sakai (a large city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan)
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
How Sakai is read(measured from records)
Sakai is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Japanese66%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Sakai in Japanese.
- English19%
an Orang Asli person.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Portuguese6.2%
Sakai (a large city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Sakai counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JP Japan | #109 | ≈170,000 est. | ≈1 in 725 | listed | Sakai | 169 |
| US United States | — | 2,287 | 1 in 145K | 2.3K | Sakai | 183 |
| BR Brazil | — | ≈1,600 est. | ≈1 in 129K | 46 | — | — |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈380 est. | ≈1 in 87K | — | Sakai | 13 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈280 est. | ≈1 in 135K | 1 | Sakai | 28 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈68 est. | ≈1 in 91K | — | Sakai | 19 |
| FI Finland | — | 47 | 1 in 119K | 47 | — | 3 |
| EE Estonia | — | ≈11 est. | ≈1 in 117K | listed | — | 2 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000; Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); the ee-siseministeerium-registry register. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Sakai is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Lithuanian, second-person singular present of sakyti
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In jpx-pro, rice wine, sake
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In mel, friend
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In mkj, rock
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Yokoyama Taikanb. 1868JPnot in their usual nameJapanese painter (1868-1958)
- Takashi Sakaib. 1887JPJapanese general and war criminal (1887-1946)
- Frankie Sakaib. 1929JPJapanese comedian (1929-1996)
- Richard Sakaib. 1954USAmerican producer (born 1954)
- Izumi Sakaib. 1967JPJapanese singer (1967–2007)
- Munehisa Sakaib. 1971JPJapanese anime director
- Masato Sakaib. 1973JPJapanese actor
- Mayu Sakaib. 1982JPmanga artist
- Hiroki Sakaib. 1990JPJapanese association football player
- Gotoku Sakaib. 1991JPJapanese association football player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 31 sources across 18 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 182 | #31,690 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 131 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 87 | #31,690 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2024 | 59 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2022 | 57 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2023 | 49 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 46 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 42 | #51,261 |
| BR Brazil | Brasil.IO genero-nomes (IBGE Censo 2010 mirror, CC-BY-SA) | — | 39 | #40,607 |
| BR Brazil | Brasil.IO genero-nomes (IBGE Censo 2010 mirror, CC-BY-SA) | — | 38 | #34,553 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2021 | 25 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 1940 | 25 | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Sakai come from?
- Sakai (a large city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Sakai?
- A machine transcription gives /sɑˈkɑi/ (IPA) for Japanese.
- What does the name Sakai mean?
- In English, an Orang Asli person.
- In which country does Sakai have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 173 thousand people named Sakai in Japan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled sakai.
- How common is the name Sakai?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,287 people named Sakai in 2010, about 1 in 145 thousand residents.
- How common is Sakai compared with other names?
- In Japan, Sakai is the 109th most common surname of 142,159 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Sakai?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/sakaiThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Sakai” — the 109th most common surname in Japan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.