Fun Facts About the Name Minoru
- 675 babies named Minoru: U.S. records list 675 babies given the name Minoru from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Minoru Mean?
Minoru is a Japanese given name meaning "fruit," "truth," or "harvest." It comes from the Japanese verb minoru, "to bear fruit, to ripen, to be fruitful, to succeed." The name is commonly written with the kanji 実, whose senses include "fruit," "seed," "truth," and "reality," or with 稔, whose senses include "harvest" and "ripening." The "truth" meaning is a customary extension of 実; the literal image is of fruit or grain coming to maturity. Because the sound Minoru can be written with more than one kanji, the meaning of the name in a particular case depends on the character chosen.
Minoru Name History & Origins
The name Minoru is native Japanese in formation. It uses the verb minoru, which is recorded in classical Japanese with the meaning "to bear fruit" or "to ripen" and also with figurative senses such as "to be realized" or "to succeed." The name's reading is a kun reading - the native Japanese reading - of the kanji 実 and 稔; the characters themselves are of Chinese origin, but the word minoru is Japanese. Like other Japanese given names taken from verbs, Minoru does not depend on a single historical figure or religious story for its origin. In Japanese naming practice, the written form is chosen by the family, so the name has appeared with different kanji and slightly different shades of meaning. It is primarily a masculine name, though Japanese given names are not always strictly limited by gender.
How Popular is the Name Minoru?
Minoru recorded its highest annual U.S. birth count in 1921. Its best rank was #974 in 1926.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | #2,253 | 11 | 0.0010% |
| 1938 | #3,871 | 5 | 0.0005% |
| 1936 | #2,399 | 10 | 0.0010% |
| 1935 | #2,868 | 8 | 0.0008% |
| 1934 | #2,354 | 11 | 0.0011% |
| 1933 | #3,194 | 7 | 0.0007% |
| 1932 | #2,778 | 9 | 0.0009% |
| 1931 | #1,751 | 18 | 0.0017% |
| 1930 | #1,679 | 20 | 0.0018% |
| 1929 | #1,551 | 23 | 0.0021% |
| 1928 | #1,742 | 20 | 0.0018% |
| 1927 | #1,681 | 22 | 0.0020% |
| 1926 | #974 | 50 | 0.0045% |
| 1925 | #1,161 | 38 | 0.0034% |
| 1924 | #1,216 | 36 | 0.0032% |
| 1923 | #1,138 | 40 | 0.0036% |
| 1922 | #1,101 | 42 | 0.0039% |
| 1921 | #998 | 50 | 0.0045% |
| 1920 | #986 | 49 | 0.0046% |
| 1919 | #1,153 | 37 | 0.0038% |
| 1918 | #1,165 | 36 | 0.0036% |
| 1917 | #1,000 | 43 | 0.0046% |
| 1916 | #1,363 | 26 | 0.0029% |
| 1915 | #1,205 | 30 | 0.0035% |
| 1914 | #1,835 | 13 | 0.0020% |
| 1913 | #1,483 | 14 | 0.0027% |
| 1912 | #2,188 | 7 | 0.0016% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
