Akira
given name · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Akira is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Japan than in any other country, where it is the 14th most common given name. Recorded meaning: , 2 ‘Clear’, ‘bright’; ‘dawn’.
- JPJapan≈1 in 466(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 46K
- SGSingapore≈1 in 47K
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)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 253 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 466 (inferred from the name graph)
≈270,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Japan, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
, 2 ‘Clear’, ‘bright’; ‘dawn’. Anna @ Japanese adoption of the English name. See main dictionary.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Akira 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 | #14 | ≈270,000 est. | ≈1 in 466 | — | Akira | 197 |
| US United States | — | 7,291 | 1 in 46K | 5.4K | Akira | 253 |
| BR Brazil | — | 1,324 | 1 in 160K | 1.3K | — | 1 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈860 est. | ≈1 in 127K | — | Akira | 40 |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈540 est. | ≈1 in 60K | — | Akira | 21 |
| SE Sweden | — | 214 | 1 in 48K | 214 | — | 6 |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈130 est. | ≈1 in 47K | — | Akira | 30 |
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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). 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)
Akira is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, männl. Vom. japanischer Herkunft, der »hell, klar« bedeutet.
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
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)
- Akira Kurosawab. 1910JPJapanese filmmaker (1910–1998)
- Akira Yoshizawab. 1911JPJapanese origamist (1911-2005)
- Akira Suzukib. 1930JPJapanese chemist (1930 - )
- Akira Takaradab. 1934JPJapanese actor (1934-2022)
- Leiji Matsumotob. 1938JPnot in their usual nameJapanese manga artist (1938–2023)
- Akira Kamiyab. 1946JPJapanese voice actor
- Akira Teraob. 1947JPJapanese actor and musician (born 1947)
- Akira Yoshinob. 1948JPJapanese engineer and researcher (1948-), known as an inventor of lithium-ion battery
- Akira Toriyamab. 1955JPJapanese manga artist and character designer (1955-2024)
- Akira Yamaokab. 1968JPJapanese composer
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 67 sources across 39 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 5.4K | #3,041 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.9K | #3,041 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 1.3K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 1.3K | #7,846 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 980 | #6,854 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 344 | #6,854 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 257 | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 214 | #4,989 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 179 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 52 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 38 | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- 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
- Is Akira a male or female name?
- Akira is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- Where does the name Akira come from?
- , 2 ‘Clear’, ‘bright’; ‘dawn’. Anna @ Japanese adoption of the English name. See main dictionary. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- What does the name Akira mean?
- Recorded meaning: , 2 ‘Clear’, ‘bright’; ‘dawn’.
- In which country does Akira have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 269 thousand people named Akira in Japan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled akira.
- How common is the name Akira?
- In the United States, the national register counted 7,291 people named Akira in 2020, about 1 in 46 thousand residents.
- How common is Akira compared with other names?
- In Japan, Akira is the 14th most common given name of 366,905 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Akira?
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/akiraThe same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Akira” — the 14th most common given name in Japan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.