Yasuko

History & Origin

Yasuko is a Japanese feminine name formed with -ko 'child' and yasu, most often written with a character meaning 'peaceful' or 'tranquil' - so 'peaceful child', though the exact sense depends on the kanji. It appears in United States birth records among Issei and Nisei families in the early twentieth century, reached its small high around 1921, and its recorded use continued into the later nineteen-seventies, always rare at a couple dozen girls a year.

A girl named Yasuko belonged to the Japanese-American community whose history includes the wartime internment years. The mountaineer Yasuko Namba, one of the first Japanese women to climb the highest peak on each continent, carried the name. It reads as an authentic, graceful Japanese name of its era.