Fun Facts About the Name Yomi
- 66 babies named Yomi: U.S. records list 66 babies given the name Yomi from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Yomi Mean?
Yomi is mainly a Yoruba name, a shortened form of Ayọ̀mí, built from ayọ̀ ("joy") and mi ("my"): "my joy." The longer form Olúyọmí adds olú, a word for lord or chief that Yoruba names often use for God, and is generally understood as "the Lord is my joy."
Separately, Yomi is used in Hebrew-speaking circles as a pet form of Yom Tov (יוֹם טוֹב), literally "good day," a name given to a boy born on a festival. In that case the meaning belongs to the parent name rather than to Yomi itself.
The same sound appears in Japanese as Yomi (黄泉), the underworld of myth. That is a place name, not a personal name, and it is not the source of the Yoruba or Hebrew names; the resemblance is coincidental.
Yomi Name History & Origins
Yoruba names are assembled from words that carry a statement, and Yomi is the everyday clipped form of names beginning with ayọ̀, "joy." Speakers shorten Ayọ̀mí and Olúyọmí to Yomi much as Adéyẹmí becomes Yemi, so the short form keeps the sense of the fuller name instead of becoming an empty nickname. Yoruba is spoken chiefly in southwestern Nigeria and in parts of Benin and Togo, and Yoruba names were carried to Cuba, Brazil, and other parts of the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade, as well as to Nigerian communities abroad.
In Jewish usage, Yom Tov is an old Hebrew name with the plain sense of "good day," referring to a festival, and it also survives as the Ashkenazi family name Yomtov, borne by the rabbi and author Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1579 - 1654). Yomi serves as a familiar shortening of that name in Hebrew-speaking communities, in the same way that Yonatan becomes Yoni.
The Japanese Yomi, also called Yomi-no-kuni, is the land of the dead in Japanese myth: in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Izanagi follows the dead Izanami there, and the story explains the separation of the living from the dead. The written form 黄泉 was taken over from the Chinese term huángquán, "Yellow Springs," a Chinese name for the realm of the dead, while the reading yomi is native Japanese; the word's ultimate derivation is uncertain. Because it names a place in myth and not a person, it provides no basis for linking the Japanese word to the Yoruba and Hebrew names.
How Popular is the Name Yomi?
Yomi has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2021. Its best rank was #6,679 in 2021.
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 | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #9,437 | 11 | 0.0007% |
| 2024 | #13,385 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 2023 | #10,267 | 10 | 0.0006% |
| 2022 | #7,611 | 15 | 0.0009% |
| 2021 | #6,679 | 18 | 0.0011% |
| 2020 | #17,432 | 5 | 0.0003% |
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.
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How the Name Yomi Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You have a strong need for freedom - physical, mental and spiritual. You hate bondage in any form. You have love of beauty and philosophy, and you desire achievement. You are willing to take spiritual matters on faith instead of subjecting them to mental analysis. You are inventive, intuitive and extremely methodical. Since your will is so strong, you are hard to convince. You also dislike advice. You love beauty and philosophy, and you desire achievement. You have a strong need for freedom - physical, mental and spiritual.
Position and social status is very important for you and you are always looking for way to improve your position in society. You have power and ability to chose your own destiny and achieve anything you want in life. You can expand in any direction according to your will and the set of values. You have passion for justice and belong to the position of authority. You have an inherent courage and endurance to accomplish "The Impossible Dream". With the power comes responsibility. You hold keys to the material world, but with this gift comes high spiritual responsibility to be fair and true to others. You are philosophical and mature, determined and intense with a desire to endure, often religious.
✦ Yomi's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Yomi's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.