Goku
- Gender
- Boy
- Say it
- GOH-koo
- Origin
- Japanese
- US rank, 2025
- #9,710 for boys
Goku is a boys' name of Japanese origin, meaning “awakened to emptiness”. In 2025 it ranked 9,710th for boys in the US (7 babies).
What does Goku mean?
Japanese: Japanese reading of Chinese Wukong
“awakened to emptiness”
The hero of the Dragon Ball manga, named after Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of the Chinese classic Journey to the West.
Is Goku a girl's or a boy's name?
Goku is a boys' name. In 2025, it was given to 7 boys in the US. Too few girls were given it to be listed.
How popular is Goku in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- #9,710among boys
- Babies in 2025
- 7about 1 in 240,000 boys
- Five-year trend
- Too rare to calltoo few babies to tell
- Same name in a class
- under 1%chance among 15 boys
In 2025, 7 boys in the US were named Goku, making it the 9,710th most popular name for boys. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 4,694th. Its busiest year was 2020, with 20 boys. It first appears in the records in 2013.
Half of all the boys named Goku in the US since 1880 were born between 2017 and 2021, the years shaded on the chart below.
Goku in the US, year by year
| Year | Boys | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #9,710 |
| 2024 | 6 | #10,930 |
| 2023 | 5 | #12,232 |
| 2022 | 12 | #6,822 |
| 2021 | 11 | #7,084 |
| 2020 | 20 | #4,694 |
| 2019 | 7 | #9,750 |
| 2018 | 13 | #6,341 |
| 2017 | 17 | #5,293 |
| 2016 | 13 | #6,344 |
| 2015 | 7 | #9,562 |
| 2014 | 0 | – |
| 2013 | 11 | #7,021 |
Names like Goku
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Tru Kairo Kaizen Kenzo Chozen Ryu Akari Hiro Sakai Kota Loki Yug
More Japanese names
Kobe Raiden Ren Ronin Kyomi Akira Yuna Emi Kiyomi Kairi Miya Kenji Reo Jiraiya Aizen Sora
Sources
Figures from Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Goku: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/goku, updated 20 October 2026.