Japanese Names

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Japanese Names
Home > Japanese Names Home Links Search News Contact (Eine deutsche Version dieser Seite befindet sich hier.) Japanese names have some rather special features. A very brief explanation: Most Japanese given names are written in kanji, a script with Chinese origin where each single character stands for a whole word or concept. Most names have two kanji characters, some three, some only one. If you see only the name written in kanji you do not yet know how it is pronounced because each kanji character has several possible pronounciations. The other way round is difficult as well: If you hear a name you cannot be sure how to write it in kanji. (Many names have several writings, with different meanings according to the actual kanji used.) To resolve such ambiguities the Japanese use Hiragana where the characters stand for syllables. You can read more about Japanese baby names here. If you see only "boxes" instead of Kanji and Hiragana characters in the name tables below the most likely reason is missing Unicode support in your browser and/or operating system. Some information about Unicode can be found here. As an alternative you can view the tables as GIF image which correctly show all characters (female male).

If you want your own name written in kanji, created by a qualified translator and verified by native Japanese speakers, have a look at My Name in Japanese or Japanese Name Translation

The Female Names: Meaning/ Translation love, affection love child

Table as GIF picture, including Kanji & Hiragana Meaning 1st Kanji Meaning of 2nd Kanji of +Link 1st Kanji +Link 2nd Kanji the love, the ai affection the love, the the child ai ko affection the love, the the beauty, ai mi affection beautiful the bright, the beauty, ake light mi beautiful the night, the rain the ama ya evening the aoi hollyhock the color, the Additional Information

Name

Kanji Hiragana

Ai

Aiko

Aimi bright and beautiful

Akemi

Amaya night rain Aoi hollyhock

for writing 'Ayaka' 20

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Ayaka

colorful flower (?)

aya aya beni chi

the coloring, the paint the color, the coloring, the paint red, vermilion one thousand

ka no ko yo

flower, the blossom

different Kanji combinations are in use

Ayano

from

Beniko 1000 generations, eternal

the child

Chiyo

Chiyoko

child of 1000 generations

chi

one thousand the blessing, the kindness the writing, the sentence, the literature

yo

the change, often also the age, written only the in Hiragana generation the change, the age, the generation the beauty, beautiful

Emi

mi

Fumiko

fumi

ko

the child

Haruka far away

far away, haruka distant hiro ko

Japanese name of the well-known anime character Sailor Uranus the child Japanese name of the well-known anime character Sailor Saturn

Hiroko Hitomi

magnanimous child (?) pupil of the eye, eye

vast, broad, wide the pupil of the eye, the hitomi eye the firefly hotaru

Hotaru firefly

Kaori

fragrance, aroma, perfume

the fragrance, the aroma, the perfume

the mist,

not to be confused

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Kasumi mist, fog

kasumi the fog

with the male name Katsumi ko mi ko the child

Kazuko peace child

kazu kazu kei

the harmony, the peace the harmony, the peace the celebration, the rejoice, to be happy

harmony and Kazumi beauty

not to be the confused beauty, with Katsumi beautiful and Kasumi the child 'kiriko' as an everyday Japanese word (different writing) means 'facet', e.g. with glas ware

Keiko

happy child

Kiriko

kiri

the paulownia

ko

the child

long time Kumiko beautiful child Mai Mami dance true beauty

Mayumi true bow (?)

Megumi

blessing, kindness

the long time, long time ago the dance, mai to dance true, the reality, the ma genuineness true, the reality, the ma genuineness the blessing, megumi the kindness ku green, the midori greenery mi mi moe nana the beauty, beautiful the beauty, beautiful the bud, the sprout seven straight,

mi

the beauty, beautiful

mi yumi

the beauty, beautiful the bow

very often written in Hiragana instead of Kanji saki u the blossom the feather umi the sea

Midori green

Misaki Miu Moe

beautiful blossom beautiful feather bud, sprout

Nanami seven seas

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Naoko

nao

erect, the honesty

ko

the child

Naomi

nao

straight, erect, the honesty

mi

probably not connected to the the identically beauty, sounding beautiful name of Hebrew origin the hope the child

Natsuki summer hope Noriko Reika Rin Sachiko Sadako lovely flower cold child of happiness

natsu nori rei rin sachi sada

the summer the method, the law, the rule lovely, beautiful cold the happiness, the blessing lucky, auspicious

ki ko ka

the flower

ko ko

the child the child

first ever female name (almost always) written in Hiragana that got the number 1 spot of the Japanese given name hitparade use of the old, now obsolete Japanese name for the 5th lunar month as given name; in the 'conventional' Gregorian calendar the days of this month mostly lay in the month of June

Sakura

cherry blossom

the cherry, the cherry blossom

Satsuki 5th month

the swamp, satsuki the shore

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Sayuri

little lily

setsu shige tei tomo tomo ume you

little the node, the section, the festival, the holiday heavy upright, the chastity the wisdom, the intelligence the friend, the companion the plum, the plum flower the sun, the sunshine

ko ko ko ko mi ko ko ko ko ko mi mi

one hundred the child

child of the Setsuko festival (?) Shigeko Teiko Tomoko

upright child child of wisdom beautiful friend

the child the child the child

Tomomi

the beauty, beautiful the child uses the same Kanji as the name 'Youko' uses the same Kanji as the name 'Yoko'

plum child, Umeko plum blossom child Yoko sun child

the child the child the child the child

Yoshiko good child Youko sun child

good yoshi you yuki yu yu the sun, the sunshine the snow the cause, the reason the cause, the reason

Yukiko snow child Yumi beauty (?)

Yumiko child of Yumi

Yuna

yu

the knot, to tie

na

Yuuka

excellent aroma

yuu yu

excellent, superior excellent, superior

ka tsuki

Yuzuki

the beauty, beautiful the beauty, beautiful also means 'moon' in the the Japanese vegetables dialect spoken in Okinawa 'Yuuka' is the fragrance, written also the aroma, with 20 other the Kanji perfume combinations the moon, the month

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The Male Names: Meaning/ Translation

Table as GIF picture, including Kanji & Hiragana 1st Kanji Meaning of +Link 1st Kanji Meaning 2nd Kanji Additional of +Link Information 2nd Kanji known from Morita the man, Akio, cothe founder of o husband Sony Corporation the ground, chi the earth the radiance, ki to shine the help suke the tree ki beside the Kanji for 'generous' there are other, equally frequent writing variants 'sake dipper' is the Japanese name for the constellation 'Big Dipper'; 'kaito' as an the sake everyday dipper, the Japanese Big word Dipper (different word) means something like 'phantom thief' self not to be confused with the female

Name

Kanji Hiragana

Akio

shining man (?)

aki

shining, bright

Daichi

earth, vast land large radiance

dai dai dai hiro

large, big

Daiki

large, big large, big large, big

Daisuke big help Hiroki big tree

Hiroshi

generous

generous, hiroshi tolerant

Isamu

courage, bravery

the courage, isamu the bravery

Kaito

kai

the sea

to

Katsumi self-control

katsu

to overcome, to win

mi

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name Kasumi Kazuki Kazuya Keisuke Kenta Kenzo Kiyoshi pure healthy and stout (?) 1 tree kazu kazu kei ken ken kiyoi kou makoto manabu masa masa one the harmony, the peace the blessing, the kindness healthy, the health healthy, the health pure, to purify peaceful, happy, healthy the sincerity, the truth the study, the learning correct, the justice, righteous hiro o Dr., to gamble, wide male ki ya suke ta zo the tree to be between thick, stout three also the flat, even, name of a Japanese era level, (years 1058calm 1065 AD) numerous variants written with other kanji ki the tree

Kouhei

calm peace (?) sincerity, truth

hei

Makoto

Manabu studious (?)

Masahiro

Masao Masaru Minoru Naoki Nobu

righteous man

victory, win fruit, seed straight tree prolong, delay

Osamu Ren Riku Ryo Saburo lotus land cool, refreshing third son

correct, the justice, righteous the victory, to masaru win the fruit, the minoru seed, the truth straight, erect, nao the honesty to prolong, to stretch, to nobu delay to study, to repair, to osamu cultivate the lotus ren the land riku cool, ryo refreshing sabu three

ro the son, the boy sometimes also written

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as 'Saburou' Shigeru to grow thick, to be luxurious true, reality first son of Shin to grow thick, to be shigeru luxurious true, the reality, the shin genuineness true, the reality, the shin genuineness shi shou shou shun sou four

Shin

ichi ro

Shinichi

one

sometimes also romanized as 'Shirou'

Shiro

fourth son

the son, the boy

Shou Shouta Shun

soar, fly

to soar, to fly to soar, to fly the good horse, the speed suddenly, smoothly ta thick, stout ta thick, stout

good horse; speed

popular only in the last few years

Souta

advancement, progress correct, righteous large radiance

Susumu

Tadashi

the advancement, susumu the progress correct, the justice, tadashi righteous tai large, big ki

the radiance, to shine o the man, the husband ya ya to be to be

Taiki

Takashi filial piety Takeo Takeru hero, gentleman

filial piety takashi take the man, the husband

warrior; military artisan, Takumi carpenter Takuya

Tetsuya Tsubasa wing

Tsuyoshi strong, tough

the warrior, military the artisan, takumi the carpenter to open up, to taku expand wise, the tetsu philosophy the wing tsubasa strong, hard, tsuyoshi tough

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Yoshio

righteous man

the righteousness, yoshi the justice

Yutaka

abundant, plentiful, rich

abundant, yutaka plentiful, rich

male, masculine, the hero, the excellence this Kanji (as sole symbol) is used to write quite a number of names large, big

Yuudai

grandeur, splendor

yuu

male, masculine, the hero, the excellence

dai

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