Takefusa
Meaning
“Japanese, written with kanji for 'build' (take) and 'excellence' (fusa); famously borne by Japan's Takefusa Kubo”
The story
Takefusa is a Japanese name written with kanji for build for take, and excellence for fusa: a quietly ambitious wish, excellence constructed rather than granted. In the global imagination it belongs almost entirely to one man: Takefusa Kubo, the Japanese winger who joined Barcelona's famed La Masia academy as a child, was dubbed the Japanese Messi by an eager press, passed through Real Madrid, and settled into stardom at Real Sociedad and with Japan's national team. Japanese given names are often composed freshly for each child from chosen characters, and Takefusa has that deliberate, made-for-one feel. In American records it had never appeared before a single flicker in the 2020s, which places it among the rarest names on the chart: a self-built kind of name for a self-built kind of player.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Takefusa has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
The Takefusa deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Takefusa truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Takefusa fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Does Takefusa fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Takefusa to your family’s tree →