Most Popular Baby Girl Names in Japan 2025 (Meiji Yasuda) and Their Meanings

The best-known list of names given to baby girls born in Japan in 2025 is headed this year by a single kanji: 翠. Read "Sui", it evokes the colour green and the kingfisher. According to Meiji Yasuda, the company behind the list, 翠 is No. 1 for the first time since its survey began.

Below you will find the top 30 girl names of 2025 with their kanji, reading, the meaning of each kanji, an Arabic spelling and the Abjad value. First, though, a word of caution: this list works differently from the national statistics you may know.

How to read this list

• It is not official. Japan does not publish an official national name ranking. This list is an annual survey by Meiji Yasuda, a life insurance company, based on the children of its own policyholders.
• The sample is small. The 2025 survey covers 6,193 girls and 6,312 boys. The counts in the table are babies in this sample, not in Japan as a whole. The 41 girls named 翠 are roughly one in every 151 girls in the sample.
• The year is not complete. The data reflect children registered on policies as of September 2025, so babies born in the last months of the year are not included.
• It ranks spellings. The main list counts names by their kanji spelling. One reading written with different kanji is split across several rows. A separate ranking counts readings; we look at it further down.

Three different leaders in five years

In the 2021–2025 data we have, only three spellings have held first place:

翠 climbed steadily: 37th in 2021, 18th in 2022, 9th in 2023, 2nd in 2024 and 1st in 2025. Last year's leader 紬 (Tsumugi) dropped to third, while 陽葵 (Himari) rose from 4th to 2nd.

The top 30 girl names of 2025

Because tied names share a rank, there are exactly 30 names down to 30th place. All of them are Japanese; the meaning column gives the dictionary sense of each kanji, while the wish a family puts into the name depends on how the kanji are chosen. Readings marked with an asterisk (*) are probable readings: these spellings can also be read other ways, and the Abjad value is calculated for the reading shown.

What changed from 2024 to 2025?

The size of the 2024 sample has not been published, so we compare the two years by rank rather than by number of babies.

• Biggest climbs in the top 30: 桜都 (Oto*) from 96th to 17th, 彩羽 (Iroha*) from 81st to 24th, 彩葉 (Iroha*) from 58th to 8th and 依茉 (Ema) from 58th to 17th.
• Falls: 芽依 (Mei) from 5th to 24th, 結愛 (Yua) from 10th to 24th, 凪 (Nagi) from 13th to 24th and 葵 (Aoi) from 6th to 12th.
• New in the top 30: 彩葉, 依茉, 桜都, 美桜, 彩羽, 百花 and 藍. 百花 (Momoka) did not appear at all in the roughly 100-name list for 2024.
• Left the top 30: 12 names. The most striking is 心晴 (Koharu), from 9th to 56th. 莉子 and 杏 sit at 31st, just outside the line.

Meiji Yasuda's own commentary highlights one theme: colour. By the company's count, 28 names in the 2025 girls' top 100 are linked to a colour. The top 30 shows it clearly: green 翠, white 白 (in 茉白), indigo 藍 and two names read Iroha written with 彩, "colour". Another observation: 8 of the top 30 are written with a single kanji.

One sound, many kanji

In Japanese a name is usually chosen for its sound first, and then the kanji are picked. That is why Meiji Yasuda's ranking by reading paints a different picture from the spelling ranking:

Ema leads the readings with 104 babies, yet in the spelling list it only appears at 12th and 17th, because families write it with dozens of different kanji. The same goes for Koharu: 心陽 stays in the top 10, while 心晴, with the same sound, has fallen out of the top 30.

The Abjad view: the value follows the sound

Abjad is calculated from Arabic letters. Japanese names have no established Arabic spelling, so we used an Arabic transcription of the reading, preferring a spelling already in use in Arabic where one exists. The value therefore follows the reading, not the kanji. The top 30 has five examples:

• 紬 and 紬希 (Tsumugi) 1522 · 彩葉 and 彩羽 (Iroha*) 223 · 咲茉 and 依茉 (Ema) 52 · 芽生* and 芽依 (Mei) 51 · 澪 and 美桜 (Mio) 56
• And two different sounds that land on the same number: 葵 (Aoi, أوي) and 結愛 (Yua, يوا), both 17.

First letters of the top 10 (11 names because of a tie): 5 begin with a Fire letter (ه م إ أ), 3 with a Water letter (س ك), 2 with an Air letter (ت ي) and 1 with an Earth letter (ر). The No. 1 name, Sui, starts with س, a Water letter. This follows the classical classification used on our site; some authors order the elements differently.

The highest values belong to Tsumugi: 1522, of which 1400 comes from just two letters, غ (1000) and ت (400). Nagisa* (1122) and Nagi (1061), both containing غ, come next. The lowest is 藍 (Ai, آي) with 11.

A different spelling gives a different value: Rin is 260 as رين and 250 as رن. For names with a probable reading, a different reading means a different Arabic spelling and so a new value altogether. No spelling is "more auspicious" than another; this is simply why our paid reports always begin by fixing how each name is spelled.

Quick questions, quick answers

Can a Japanese name have an Abjad value? Yes, but the value comes from the sound of the name written in Arabic letters, not from the kanji. So the reading must be settled first.

If I write the same name with other kanji, does the value change? Not as long as the reading stays the same. 澪 and 美桜 mean very different things (a water channel / beautiful cherry blossom), but both are read Mio, so both are 56.

Does this list represent all of Japan? No. It shows children of one company's policyholders born in roughly the first nine months of the year. It is useful for spotting trends, but it does not support statements like "41 babies in Japan".

Is a name with a high value stronger? The Abjad tradition has no such rule. Most of Tsumugi's 1522 comes from a single letter. What the tradition looks at is how the letters and elements of a name balance with the mother's and father's names. The same name can supply a missing element in one family and reinforce an already dominant one in another.

A final word

The list shows what a group of Japanese families chose in 2025; it does not show what suits your family. Read the meaning from the kanji, the value from the sound, and the harmony together with the parents' names.

This article is for information only. Abjad interpretations are based on tradition and do not contain any definitive judgement or guarantee about a name.

Source: Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance (明治安田生命), "Name Ranking 2025" — the company's annual survey of babies born in 2025 in its policyholder families (6,312 boys, 6,193 girls; policy data as of September 2025). It is not an official count representing Japan as a whole. Kanji meanings: EDRDG KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA).