Annual survey finds the most popular names and kanji characters for new babies.

A lot of thought goes into picking baby names in Japan. Not only do parents have to pick how the name will sound, but also how it’ll be written, since the Japanese language’s system of kanji characters means that there are often multiple ways to write the same-pronounced name.

Benesse, which publishes magazines for expectant and new parents and also runs the Tamahiyo online parenting portal, conducts an annual study of Tamahiyo users who have recently welcomed a new child into their family, to determine the most popular baby names in Japan. This year’s study looked at the names of 166,011 babies born between January 1 and September 15 of this year, so let’s take a look at the top five for boys and girls, starting with the boys.

5. Ren / 蓮
Meaning: lotus

Ren has slipped a bit since its second-place finish in 2024, but it still remains one of the most popular boys’ names of the last 10 years. Combining a quick, strong-sounding pronunciation with a meaning that’s cultured and elegant, but without feeling old-fashioned, it’s a name with a broad appeal that doesn’t feel like it’s trying to pigeonhole the child into a single personality path.

4. Asahi / 朝陽
Meaning: morning sun

Outside Japan, “Asahi” might conjure up images of Japan’s best-selling beer, but the name itself means “morning sun,” a popular symbol of hopeful auspiciousness in Japan. For an extra dash of stylishness, this Asahi, which rose up from sixth place in last year’s ranking, is written with the fancier kanji 陽 for sun, instead of the standard 日, and 陽 also carries the connotation bright, energetic, and optimistic.

3. Haruto / 陽翔
Meaning: bright flight

The second kanji here, 翔, is a poetic-sounding way of saying “fly” or “take wing.” Combined with the 陽 we saw in Asahi, the name radiates an atmosphere of soaring, cheerful freedom, and it’s risen one rank higher than it was last year.

2. Minato / 湊
Meaning: harbor

Minato has also enjoyed a lot of popularity in recent years, finishing fifth in 2025. Similar to the alternative kanji for sun seen in Asahi and Haruto, this Minato doesn’t use the mundane 港 kanji used to mark ports on maps and shipping documents, but instead the cooler-looking 湊, to help establish that it’s a name meant to convey a sense of reliable protection and sociable connections more so than distribution logistics.

1. Ao / 碧
Meaning: blue

In first place, and for the second year in a row, is Ao. Once again, we’ve got a fancy alternate kanji here, as the basic “blue” kanji is 青. Since this 碧 is more elaborate, you’ll sometimes see it translated into English as “azure,” but 碧 is traditionally used to describe a shade closer to blue-green than the lapis-like hue of “azure.”

▼ The top Google image search results for 碧 as a color

But while graphic designers and art historians might thing of 碧 as a very specific shade, among laymen it’s often taken simply as a fancy way of writing “blue.” There’s actually a bit of a figuratively gray area between the colors blue and green in Japanese culture, and so ao often carries the connotation of the fresh green leaves of spring, imparting a sense of youthful, innocent vitality, which explains its continuing popularity as a name for baby boys.

Now let’s take a look at the top girls’ names.

5. Hina / 陽菜
Meaning: good vegetables

Up seven spots from 12th place last year, Hina’s meaning might have you thinking it’d be more appropriate as a name for a grocery store than a baby girl. However, we’ve seen that frequent contributor 陽 creates a feeling of positive, happy energy, and while 菜 is indeed the kanji for edible non-fruit plants, it also evokes thought of new sprouts popping up from the soil, healthy and cute, and the “-na” gives the name a charming ring to it too.

4. Mei / 芽衣
Meaning: buds and clothing

We’ve got more fresh and healthy plant life imagery with Mei, which finished fourth for the second year in a row. The addition of 衣, meaning “clothing,” doesn’t do much to deepen the name’s significance, but the second kanji’s “i” sound helps elongate the name’s pronunciation and make it cuter than the more abrupt “Me” it would be if it were written with 芽 alone.

3. Rin / 凜
Meaning: dignified/ringing clearly

Rin, which was the most popular girls’ name in 2024, has a number of meanings, but the two that most parents are probably thinking of are “dignified” and “ringing clearly,” with the latter usable to describe both the voice of someone who speaks with confident annunciation or the refined tone of a bell or chime. The high-class meaning being coupled with a pronunciation that still sounds cute is probably a key factor to its popularity, sort of like what we say with Ren.

2. Himari / 陽葵
Meaning: good hollyhock

Flora once again inspires one of the top girls’ names with Himari. Hollyhocks might not rank up there with cherry blossoms, azaleas, and wisteria among the flowers that Japanese people are most likely to go out to parks and gardens to see while they’re in bloom, but their beauty has been appreciated for centuries (hollyhocks appeared in the create of the Tokugawa shogunate). The kanji 葵 used by itself, pronounced Aoi, is a classical, elegant-sounding women’s name, so Himari borrows some of that traditional quality while also giving it a warm, modern update.

1. Sui / 翠
Meaning: green

Just like with the boys’ list, the top-ranking girls’ name for 2025 is a color, and one written with a more elaborate kanji than the standard one. Ordinarily, the Japanese word for “green,” midori. is written as 緑. 翠 can also be read as midori, but among the study’s parents it was the Sui pronunciation that made it the most popular.

Also like top boy’s name Ao, Sui isn’t just any green, either. It’s the blue-green seen in the feathers of kingfisher, a unique shade that Benesse’s analysts say works as a metaphor for parents’ hopes that they daughter will soar in a way true to herself in life. 翠 is also the second kanji in hisui (翡翠), the Japanese word for “jade,” which probably gave it a boost as well.

If you’re having trouble remembering the last time you met a Japanese person named Sui, it’s a name that only recently started racing up the chart. As recently as 2020, it was still down in 95th place, before climbing to 16th in 2022 and hanging out in third for 2023 and 2024 before taking the top spot for the first time this year.

Speaking of names seeing big jumps in popularity, in the boys list Zen, written 善 and meaning “goodness” or “virtue,” moved up all the way from 153rd to 52nd. For girls, Koto (心都, roughly translating to “city of the heart”) made an even bigger gain, rising 156 slots to 56th place, while Sakura (桜, “cherry blossom”) mounted a comeback and also moved up 100-plus spots, from 146th to 45th, so we might be seeing them in the top five soon.

Source: PR Times, Benesse
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2), Google, Pakutaso (3, 4), Wikipedia/JMK
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