Yamato
Torn between Yamato and another name? Compare them side by side →
Meaning
great harmony
The story
Yamato is one of the most resonant names in the Japanese language, because for centuries it was the name of Japan itself. Written today with the characters for great and harmony, it reads as Great Harmony, though that graceful spelling was a deliberate choice by the early imperial court to honor the land, laid over an older word whose first sense may have been something closer to the mountain place. From the Yamato plain came the imperial line and the age that gave the nation its identity. Its legendary hero is Yamato Takeru, the brave prince of Japan's oldest chronicles, remembered for courage and a wandering, tragic end. Broad and grounded, yah-MAH-toh, it is rare in the United States and carried within Japanese families. Grand and rooted, Yamato hands a child the old name of a whole country and the promise folded into its characters: harmony, on the largest scale.
How popular is Yamato around the world?
In the United States, 10 babies were named Yamato between 2020 and 2025.
Yamato is on the official records of the United States.
United States
1 in 2.2M
In the United States, 10 babies were named Yamato between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Yamato has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Austria
last on record 2015
Yamato is not on the 2025 record for Austria, which publishes every first name down to a single birth, so the name was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
South Australia
last on record 2015
Yamato is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
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 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 Yamato deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Yamato 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 Yamato fits with your family’s names and surname.
Does Yamato fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Yamato to your family’s tree →