Given name & surname
Yoshi
“one who is respectful and good”·“a good-hearted man; one who is free”
Yoshi is used as a given name and a surname. Interpretations include “one who is respectful and good” (Japanese) and “a good-hearted man; one who is free” (Japanese). These may reflect different naming traditions.
Original Japanese愛
Meaning & origin
What it means
Interpretations include “one who is respectful and good” (Japanese) and “a good-hearted man; one who is free” (Japanese). These may reflect different naming traditions.
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 1914. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Yoshi through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 310
- 219 boys · 91 girls
- Most popular year
- 2022
- 19 babies
- 2025
- 7
- #10,654 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +31%
- Rising
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 7 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 10,654 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 41.5% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 17 in 2011. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 743 as a first name in 2020; a sample rank of No. 66,321 among surnames in 1990.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Yoshi’s family of names
Yoshi has a related form in Yoshiko. Yoshi has a related form in Yoshie. Yoshi has a related form in Yoshio.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 10
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Yoshiovariant
- Yoshievariant
- Yoshinovariant
- Yoshikovariant
- Yosheevariant
- Yosheyvariant
- Yoshyvariant
- Yosheahvariant
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Spellings & scripts 6
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Yoshi
- Yoshi OyakawaAmerican swimmerborn 1933
- Yoshi HijikataJapanese theatre director,Japanese Communist Party member (1898–1959)
- Yoshi KatōJapanese actor (1913-1988)
- Yoshi TsutsugoJapanese baseball playerborn 1991
- Yoshi OidaJapanese actorborn 1933
- Yoshi WadaJapanese Sound Designer (1943-2021)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
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