Takefusa
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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.
How popular is Takefusa around the world?
Takefusa does not appear in US Social Security baby-name records, which list only names given to at least five babies in a year. There is no popularity curve to chart: a genuinely rare pick.
United States
under 5 a year
Takefusa does not appear in US Social Security baby-name records, which list only names given to at least five babies in a year. There is no popularity curve to chart: a genuinely rare pick.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
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.
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