Akira ranks #850 with 138 female registrations. The name is a Japanese gender-neutral name (commonly meaning "bright" or "clear" depending on the kanji) and on a pet license usually lands from one of three distinct sources.
The triple-source name
Akira reaches US pet licenses through three primary cultural channels. Japanese-American households use it as straightforward heritage. Anime fans associate it with Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 cyberpunk film, foundational to Western anime fandom). Film fans associate it with Akira Kurosawa, the legendary director of Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Each channel pulls a slightly different demographic, and the name's gender-flexibility in Japanese means it shows up on female-registered pets in the US despite being more commonly male in Japan.
Sound and breed lean
Three syllables, front-stressed (ah-KEE-ra), with an open opening vowel and a clean rolled R. The name calls clearly outdoors and works particularly well in noisy environments. Akira lands with notable concentration on Asian-coded breeds: Shiba Inu, Akita (where the heritage-match is direct), Japanese spitz, and ginger-coated cats whose owners wanted a name with intentional cultural register. See Akita names for the direct cluster.
The counter-reading
The honest read is that Akira carries cultural weight, and outsider use without anchor (no heritage, no anime affinity, no film knowledge) can feel like aesthetic appropriation. Households who want the same Japanese-feminine register might consider Sakura or Yumi. The human Akira page shows climbing SSA use.