Given name & surname
Ai
“one who loves and is loved; indigo blue”
Ai is used as a given name and a surname. One Japanese interpretation is “one who loves and is loved; indigo blue.”
Original Japanese阿井
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Japanese interpretation is “one who loves and is loved; indigo blue.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Japanese.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1974. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ai through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 403
- 11 boys · 392 girls
- Most popular year
- 1991
- 19 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −66%
- Cooling
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 10 in 2021. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 19 in 1991. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 3,483 as a first name in 2020; 1,002 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ai’s family of names
In Japanese usage, Ai is a Roman-alphabet rendering of 亜衣. In Japanese usage, Ai is a Roman-alphabet rendering of 愛衣. In Japanese usage, Ai is a Roman-alphabet rendering of 藍維.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: across languages.
Spellings & scripts 6
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 6
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Ai
- Ai SugiyamaJapanese tennis playerborn 1975
- Ai TakahashiJapanese singer, actress, dancer, and modelborn 1986
- Ai YazawaJapanese manga artistborn 1967
- Ai OtsukaJapanese singer-songwriterborn 1982
- Ai KagoJapanese female singer, talent, YouTuber and TikToker (1988-)
- Ai ShibataJapanese swimmerborn 1982
- Ai FukuharaJapanese table tennis playerborn 1988
- Ai KayanoJapanese voice actressborn 1987
- AiJapanese-American singer-songwriterborn 1981
Characters named Ai: Kizuna AI (Japanese virtual YouTuber), Ai Haibara (Case Closed).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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