List of Japanese Naming Tropes

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Fictional character names in Japanese often have a double meaning to them. Sometimes the meaning is in the kanji or Chinese characters, which can have mean something by themselves.

Boy Names

Male names often end in -hiko or -rou. 彦 -hiko means "lad" while 郎 -rou means "son".

Girl Names

Most people are familiar with girl names ending in -ko for their given name. "Ko" means "child", not girl (Perhaps a hint of Japanese views on women in the past.)

However, a lot of Japanese women's names also end in -e like Tomoe. They play upon this trope with Signalman's wife being named Sigue and then double play on this in AkibaRangers with his wife being named Delue.

There are also quite a few girl names that end in -na as well, like Mina.

Rich Person Names

Long names like Daimonji or Saionji are often given to characters who are rich, elite, or high class.

Example: Daimonji Shun from Fourze or Suizenji Sayuri from Machine Robo Rescue.

Tarou

Tarou is the standard boy's name in Japan. Ultraman Tarou being the son of Ultra Father and Ultra Mother is a good example of this.

There are many variations of Tarou like Keitarou, Kotarou, Ryoutarou, Koutarou, Shoutarou, Shintarou, Gentarou, etc.

The Imagin Taros bros are also based on Tarou. Specifically, they take their names from famous Tarou's from myths like Momotarou, Urashima Tarou, or Kintarou.

U Dropping

Sometimes when writing Japanese names in English, the long u is dropped. Like the official spelling of Fuuto is Futo. Sometimes that u is represented with an h like in Yu-Gi-Oh. It all depends on the preference of the person whose name it is or the writer/translator for the fiction. #TV-Nihon usually elects to preserve the u since there's a definitely difference in pronunciation between the names Youko and Yoko, as well as Koutarou and Kotarou.

More Japanese

List of Japanese Words

Page of Japanese terms that appear in the shows