Chozen peaked in 2024, ranks #745, and has just 980 SSA bearers: one of the rarest names in current American records, and one with an almost certainly television-driven origin story that's still in its opening chapters.
The Cobra Kai Connection
Chozen Toguchi is a character from both the original Karate Kid film series (1985) and its Netflix continuation Cobra Kai, where the character returned and was substantially rehabilitated from his original villain role. Cobra Kai's enormous Netflix success — it was one of the most-watched series on the platform in 2020–2022 — exposed the name to a new generation of parents. The 2024 peak for Chozen in SSA data follows Cobra Kai's peak viewership with the typical naming lag of a few years.
The Spelling as Concept
Chozen, spelled with a Z,functions as a respelling of "chosen," which gives it a meaning layer beyond the fictional character: a child who is chosen, special, selected. This is a pattern in American naming where alternate spellings of meaningful English words become given names — Destiny, Journey, Loyal, and now Chozen. The Z transforms it from a common word into a distinctive name while preserving the meaning's legibility. Parents may be drawn to either the martial arts character or the theological concept of election, or both.
What 980 Bearers Means
With fewer than a thousand total SSA bearers, Chozen is in genuinely uncharted naming territory — this child will almost certainly go through life without meeting another Chozen unless they seek them out. That level of rarity cuts sharply both ways: maximum distinctiveness, but also maximum explanation burden. Whether the Cobra Kai reference will read as a charming childhood detail or a dated TV reference by the time this child is an adult depends entirely on the show's cultural longevity. Current rankings suggest the name is still building.