Hello, true believers, and Excelsior! Oh wait, I’m not writing about American comics (apologies to Stan Lee) but about its counterpart over the Pacific, anime.
You can’t have watched any amount of anime and failed to notice the same names coming up again and again. So here’s where I will explain some aspects of Japanese names, as well as what the most common ones mean.
Sakura – If I had a dollar for every time I saw this name anywhere in Japan, I would be a billionaire. It’s a very common name, and for good reason – it means cherry blossom.
The flower has deep cultural meaning to the Japanese people. They bloom every year in the springtime, and flowering views parties called Hanami (literally, seeing the flowers) are a common occurrence during that time as co-workers, friends, schoolmates and families gather beneath the blossoming trees. Some hardcore watchers even follow the “front” which is different every year, trying to time their viewing just right as the blooms spread across the nation.
The samurai of ancient Japan thought the flower – with its short lifespan and elegant beauty – symbolized the ephemeral and fleeting nature of existence on the mortal plane.
So whether you are Sakura Kasugano from Street Fighter or Sakura from Card Captor Sakura or any one of a hundred others, that’s where the name comes from!
Akira means intelligent, clear or bright. While a unisex name, it’s generally given to male children. Much like cultures all over the world, Japanese children are typically named after things that their parents would like them to be, or for qualities that they wish they had or will develop. Just as in English we have Justin (Just) and Gerald (power of the spear, apparently – I had to look that up!) and Mei (beautiful) often appears in female Chinese names, Japanese is not very different in this regard.
Akira pops up a lot in anime – ranging from Akira Toriyama, the artist of DBZ (sadly deceased) to the seminal 90s anime, Akira.
Subaru is actually the Japanese name for the constellation of Pleiades. Depending on how it is written, it can mean either “unity” or “ascension”.
A car company is named after it as well, with the story being that a few car companies decided to merge to form a bigger one (much like Voltron, maybe) and taking the name Subaru to signify that.
While usually given to males, we have Subaru Ryoko from Martian Successor Nadesico. Subaru Sumeragi from X/Tokyo Babylon is a bearer of this name, as are many others.
(I’m only going to give one or two examples per name, if not I would be utterly swamped! Interested readers can Google for more information.)
Yuri simply means lily, as in the flower. Longer-term anime fans will probably also know that it is a slang term for lesbians. (maybe not that “slangy” anymore, as Yuricon has been in existence for decades now…)
Depending on how it is written, it can be used for either males or females. Wikipedia explains yuri a little more. “White lilies have been used since the Romantic era of Japanese literature to symbolize beauty and purity in women, and are a de facto symbol of the yuri genre.”
What you may not know is that in Japanese, there is a term called hana kotoba (“the language of flowers”) in which each blossom has a particular meaning to it. (similar to how in English a rose symbolizes romance) Many Japanese names (too long to list here) derive their meanings from hanakotoba as well, and as you would expect, lilies are well represented.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanakotoba for a more complete list)
We can see that names like Sumire (Sakura Taisen) Tsubaki (also from the same) and others often appear, generally (but not always) taking their hana kotoba meanings with them.
Let’s finish off the list with some of the other more commonly found names.
Megumi can mean “blessing” “favor” or “grace”. Just like Constance and Charity are names for female children in English, Megumi is a reasonably common one for female Japanese kids.
One doesn’t need to go far to find famous Megumis – Megumi Hayashibara (who should be a household name if you know anything at all about seiyuu) is one.
Takeshi generally means “warrior” or “strength” – or any one of a number of possible things, all associated with masculine energy. This is definitely a male-only name!
Brock in Pokemon is actually Takeshi in Japanese (just like Ash is actually Satoshi, and Misty is Kasumi…unlike the guys, Kasumi actually means “mist”)
Akane pops up a lot too, and simply means “deep red” or “brilliant red” Akane Tendo (from Ranma ½) may be one of the more famous bearers of this name – among many others.
Isamu means “bravery”, “courage” or “merit” – think of it as a variation of Takeshi above. Isamu Dyson from Macross Plus is well represented here.
And last but not least, let’s end the list with Makoto, meaning “true” or “sincere.” This is another unisex name and belongs to characters as disparate as the karateka from Street Fighter 3 to Sailor Jupiter.
(Just as an aside – and because I don’t want to write an entire other article about it – the Sailor Senshi are named after the planets. Tsukino Usagi is literally “rabbit of the moon” Mizuno Ami is “beauty of water” (representing Mercury) Hino Rei is “spirit of fire” (as Mars is technically associated with flame) and so on.)
I hope you’ve enjoyed this shorter than normal article about some commonly used anime names and what they may mean.
This is not to say that ALL names in anime have meaning. Just like in real life, some names are just…names and were not picked for any special reason. However, a good many have special significance in some way or another, so I hope that this article has at least clued you in to some of the meaning behind them.
(https://medium.com/@willow.r/anime-names-have-too-many-meanings-45aa08053665 – this is a decent article that goes into the specifics of some names, although it’s not entirely correct about “hiragana is used for female names”