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Katsumi
Pronounced kaht-SOO-mee /kɑːtˈsuːmi/Medium
Meaning: Katsumi is a Japanese given name whose common readings join 'katsu', to win or excel, with 'mi', beauty, for 'victorious beauty', or read the whole as a word for self-mastery and restraint. Used for both sexes in Japan, it appears here for boys. Its United States records belong to the Issei and Nisei Japanese-American families of the early twentieth century.Medium
Popularity in the U.S. · SSA data
U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880–present). Pink marker = peak year.
SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.
History & Origin
Katsumi is a Japanese name, most often understood as 'victorious beauty' from katsu, 'win', and mi, 'beauty', or as a word for self-control. It reached United States records through Issei immigrants and their Nisei children in the early twentieth century.
Katsumi's American span is short and telling: it appears from the nineteen-tens and crests around 1923, then falls away by the early nineteen-forties, when the wartime incarceration of Japanese-American families broke the community's naming patterns. Only a few dozen boys a year ever carried it.
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Frequently Asked
What does the name Katsumi mean?
Katsumi is a Japanese name usually read as 'victorious beauty', from 'katsu' (win) and 'mi' (beauty), or as 'self-control'.
How do you pronounce Katsumi?
It's said kaht-SOO-mee /kɑːtˈsuːmi/, three syllables.
Is Katsumi a boy or girl name?
Katsumi is a boy's name.
Is Katsumi a popular name?
No, Katsumi was always rare in America, carried by Japanese immigrant families and peaking in the early nineteen-twenties.