Kenji
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Kenji is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Japan than in any other country, where it is the 15th most common given name. Recorded meaning: ‘Intelligent ruler’.
- JPJapan≈1 in 478(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 18Kas Kenzie
- MQMartinique≈1 in 5.1K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Kenji itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. 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
- 278 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 478 (inferred from the name graph)
≈260,000 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)
‘Intelligent ruler’.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kenji 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 | #15 | ≈260,000 est. | ≈1 in 478 | listed | Kenji | 195 |
| CN China | — | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 74K | — | Kenji | 28 |
| US United States | — | 18,539as Kenzie | 1 in 18K | 18K | Kenji | 278 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 90K | — | Kenji | 42 |
| HK Hong Kong | #587 | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 7.1K | — | Kenji | 22 |
| BR Brazil | — | 791 | 1 in 268K | 791 | — | 1 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 780 | 1 in 22K | 770 | Kenji | 23 |
| MQ Martinique | — | ≈86 est. | ≈1 in 5.1K | 5 | — | — |
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: the japanese-names-oneill-1972 register; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (births by department), dpt 972 (Martinique). 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)
Kenji 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 men, The seed of the Nduvu. Like a fir cone closed, 4x1 inches. They say the toucan swallows
as a wordMende Natural History Vocabulary
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)
- Miyazawa Kenjib. 1896JPJapanese poet and author of children's literature (1896-1933)
- Kenji Mizoguchib. 1898JPJapanese film director and screenwriter (1898-1956)
- Kenji Utsumib. 1937JPJapanese actor and voice actor (1937–2013)
- Kenji Kawaib. 1957JPJapanese composer
- Kenta Satoib. 1957JPnot in their usual nameJapanese actor
- Kenji Kamiyamab. 1966JPJapanese anime director
- Kenji Ohtsukib. 1966JPJapanese singer
- Kenji Hamadab. 1972JPJapanese voice actor
- Kenji Nojimab. 1976JPJapanese voice actor
- Mike Shinodab. 1977USnot in their usual nameAmerican musician, rapper, singer and songwriter
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 57 sources across 34 countries.
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name 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
- What does the name Kenji mean, and where does it come from?
- ‘Intelligent ruler’. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- Is Kenji a male or female name?
- Kenji 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.
- In which country does Kenji have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 263 thousand people named Kenji in Japan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kenji.
- How common is the name Kenji?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 791 people named Kenji in 2022, about 1 in 268 thousand residents.
- How common is Kenji compared with other names?
- In Japan, Kenji is the 15th most common given name of 366,905 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Kenji?
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/kenjiThe 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, “Kenji” — the 15th most common given name in Japan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.