Yama
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in Japanese: Rōmaji transcription of やま
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Yama is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Japan than in any other country.
- JPJapan≈1 in 3.9K(inferred from the name graph)
- AFAfghanistan≈1 in 16K
- PGPapua New Guinea≈1 in 32K
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
- 68 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 3.9K (inferred from the name graph)
≈32,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Japan, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
a group of Devas (P); Kala (N); Krsna (N);
Sources 1
- Sunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Yama is read(measured from records)
Yama is one spelling over 4 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.
- Japanese28%
Rōmaji transcription of やま
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish22%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Yama in Spanish.
- English15%
Buddhist king and judge of the underworld; in temples, a deity who judges the dead.
as a nameKorea - A Historical and Cultural Dictionary
The Hindu lord of death, who rides a buffalo.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Hindi14%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Yama in Hindi.
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.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)
Yama 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 | #961 | ≈32,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.9K | — | Yama | 44 |
| AF Afghanistan | — | ≈2,300 est. | ≈1 in 16K | 1 | — | 5 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 147K | — | Yama | 10 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 98K | — | Yama | 7 |
| SN Senegal | — | ≈450 est. | ≈1 in 35K | 3 | — | 4 |
| US United States | — | 267 | 1 in 1.2M | 318 | Yama | 68 |
| PG Papua New Guinea | — | ≈220 est. | ≈1 in 32K | 18 | — | 1 |
| GA Gabon | — | ≈41 est. | ≈1 in 54K | 3 | — | — |
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 2020; PNG Election Results Database — candidate names (1972–2022); DGE — candidate declarations, 41 party/coalition lists (legislatives anticipees 17 Nov 2024); Ministere de l'Interieur — 2025 candidate lists (local + legislative); Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names. 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)
Yama is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
a group of Devas (P); Kala (N); Krsna (N);
as a nameSunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names
Agni (V); Indra (V); name of many men (P);
as a nameSunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names
In ibg, father
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)
- Joam Yamab. 1566Japanese Jesuit missionary
- Rokurō Yamab. 1897JPJapanese illustrator
- Mihoko Yamab. 1949JPJapanese athletics competitor
- Megumi Yamab. 1957JPJapanese psychologist
- Hiroshi Yamab. 1959JPJapanese psychologist
- Joakim Yamab. 1973FRFrench composer
- Yohei Yamab. 1977JPJapanese artist (1977-)
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 54 sources across 29 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 318 | #67,004 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 267 | #72,771 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 178 | #95,091 |
| PG Papua New Guinea | PNG Election Results Database — candidate names (1972–2022) | — | 18 | #18 |
| GA Gabon | Ministere de l'Interieur — 2025 candidate lists (local + legislative) | 2025 | 3 | #92 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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 Yama mean?
- In Japanese, Rōmaji transcription of やま
- Where does the name Yama come from?
- a group of Devas (P); Kala (N); Krsna (N); Recorded by Sunama Sarit (Hindi) Ten Thousand Sanskrit Names.
- In which country does Yama have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 32 thousand people named Yama in Japan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled yama.
- How common is the name Yama?
- In the United States, the national register counted 267 people named Yama in 2010, about 1 in 1.2 million residents.
- How common is Yama compared with other names?
- In Japan, Yama is the 961st most common surname of 142,159 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Yama?
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/yamaThe 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, “Yama” — the 961st most common surname in Japan. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.