Japanese names, Japanese Kanji names, Japanese women and men names
Japanese Names
Japanese names combine a “family name” with an “individual name” for each person. To use a contemporary example, the name “Suzuki + Ichiro” is given in the order “family name + individual name”. Family names and individual names are called “sei” and “mei”, respectively. Family names are also known as “myouji” (surnames). The individual name is often used alone to refer to first names.
Japanese Male Names
The Kanji characters shown here “健” pronounced Ken, “隆” pronounced Takashi or Ryu, “雄” pronounced Yu or O, “宏”pronounced Hiroshi or Kou, and “俊” pronounced Toshi or Shun all suggesting concepts of “power” and “grandeur”, are often used to represent male names. Many names end with two and three letter sounds like “-o” , or “-ki”, “-ta”, “-shi”, “-ji”, “-to”, “-ya”, “-go”, and so on. It is not uncommon for some names to end in “-suke”, “-hiro”, “-yuki”, “-aki”, “-hiko”, “-hei”, “-hisa”, “-nori”, “taka”, “-nobu”, “-fumi”, “-taro”, and “-ichiro” which are four or more Hiragana in length endings.
Names written with only one Kanji are very common. Kunyomi (native Japanese) examples are “Yutaka”, “Akira”, “Hiroshi”, “Osamu”, “Satoru”, “Hajime”, and “Makoto”. In recent years, the preference seems to be for names using Onyomi (Chinese) with examples like “Ryou”, “Shou”, and “Ken”.
Additionally, attaching a prefix meaning “man” with the order of child’s birth, results in names like “Ichiro (Taro)” meaning (first born son) and “Jiro” meaning (second born son). While this is no longer as common as it was in years past, the usage is still seen now and again because of the need to “be #1”, or perhaps a superstition based on fortunetelling derived from the writing or uttering of one’s name.
However, use of the suffixs “-emon”, “-hyoue/bee”, “-maru”, “-yoshi/kichi”, and “-maro” continue to decline.
Japanese Female Names
Among women’s names, frequently used characters are “優” pronounced “Yu”, and, “恵”, “Megumi / Kei / E”, “愛” “Ai”, “友” “Tomo / Yu”,, and “里” “Sato / Ri”, which all suggest kindness and loveliness.
Many names of the common names end with such sounds as“-ko”, followed by “-mi”, “-ka”, “-na”, “-e”, “-yo”, and “-ri”. Additional endings that are seen are “-i”, “-no”, “-ho”, “-ki”, “-sa”, and “-ne”. The use of the “-ko” (meaning “child”) ending has lost popularity over time.
Names of flowers, like “桜” pronounced “Sakura”, meaning cherry blossom, “桃” “Momo”, meaning peach, and “梨” pronounced “Ri”, meaning pear, are also popular. With female names there is a tendency to avoid the use of complex Kanji. The softness of Hiragana is preferred, and in many cases female names are registered entirely in Hiragana (whereas male names are seldom registered just in Hiragana). The names are also shorter compared to those of men.
It is not uncommon to find names like “Yuuki”, “Hiromi”, “Kazumi”, “Kaoru”, “Hikaru”, “Tomo”, and “Yu” to be used for both men and women. Recently, what have been seen as being traditionally female names are being used for men, and more masculine names like “Akira”, “Makoto”, “Yamato”, “Mitsuru” are also being used for women. There are also many instances where foreign names are being transliterated with Kanji. “Reo” (Leo), and “Sara”, for instance, as well as names like “Jouji”(George), “Naomi”, “Erika”, “Risa”(Lisa), and “Mari” are starting to be used; these names have become widely established as “Japanese names” in recent years.
Kanji Used in Names
Kanji used in names in Japan are among the 1,945 Joyo (“Daily Use”) Kanji and 985 Jinmeiyou (Use in Names) Kanji. Even so, there really is no limit to the number of Chinese characters that could be used.
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