According to the U.S. baby name data, the Japanese name Kazuko saw a distinct spike in usage in 1927 — the one and only year it reached the U.S. top 1,000.
- 1929: 20 baby girls named Kazuko
- 1928: 28 baby girls named Kazuko
- 1927: 63 baby girls named Kazuko [rank: 958th]
- 31 born in California, 21 in Hawaii, 6 in Washington state
- 1926: 14 baby girls named Kazuko
- 1925: 15 baby girls named Kazuko
Nearly 83% of the usage came from California and Hawaii — states with relatively large numbers of Japanese-Americans.
We saw a very similar pattern of usage when looking at Shoji, which was influenced by the start of Japan’s Showa era in the waning days of 1926. So I suspected that Kazuko was likewise influenced by the Showa era. For years, though, I was unable to figure out how the name and the era were connected.
Then I discovered a key fact about the second kanji (i.e., Chinese character) in the word Showa.
This kanji, which means “peace” or “harmony,” is usually pronounced “wa.” But it can also pronounced in other ways. And one of those others ways is “kazu” — a nanori reading used exclusively in Japanese personal names.
The SSA’s data doesn’t reveal how Japanese names are rendered in Japanese, but my hunch is that most of the 1927 Kazukos wrote their names using this particular character. (And the “-ko” portion of their names was almost certainly represented by the kanji meaning “child” that was so trendy during that period for girl names, e.g., Yoshiko, Chiyoko, Mitsuko, Haruko, Yoko.)
Soon after leaning about the “kazu” pronunciation, I noticed that the Japanese girl name Kazue (pronounced kah-zoo-eh) doubled in usage the same year, no doubt for the same reason:
- 1929: 7 baby girls named Kazue
- 1928: 5 baby girls named Kazue
- 1927: 24 baby girls named Kazue
- 13 born in Hawaii, 9 in California
- 1926 12 baby girls named Kazue
- 1925: 13 baby girls named Kazue
Do you have any thoughts on the name Kazuko? How about Kazue?
Sources: Showa era – Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Kazuko – Behind the Name, SSA
Images: Adapted from Emperor Showa (public domain)
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