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Archive for September 7th, 2009

popular names and unique names in Japan

Posted by: kirin on date

Sep 7th, 2009 | filed

Filed under: Learn Japanese, Something Interesting

Japanese first names use to be easier to read from Kanji, because they were true to the Kanji given to the names. We could pronounce them correctly when we just read the Kanji given to the names.

But how about today?
Let’s take a look at most popular names in 2008.
*Disclaimer: The chart is quoted from this page of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company.

popular names 2008 popular names and unique names in Japan

I can see these names were not familiar when I was a kid. When I was a child, most of the names for girl were supposed to end with -ko, such as “Akiko” “Yuuko” “Minako” “Noriko” “Yukiko” “Ayako”… but nowadays -ko is not popular at all.
In Spanish speaking countries, sometimes -ko ending Japanese girl’s names sound weird because they look like boy’s. They’d ask why Akiko instead of Akika? Yuuko instead of Yuuka, since ending -a means feminine noun while -o ending means masculine noun.

To be honest, when I just look at the above chart, there are some that I cannot 100% sure for how to pronounce from the given Kanji.
I could guess, but I am not for sure. Japanese names have become more complicated in reading from Kanji, but they have become easier to be pronounced. Look at the next chart for Katakana pronunciation.

*Disclaimer: The chart is quoted from this page of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company.

popular names how to read them 2008 popular names and unique names in Japan

If you can read Katakana, you’ll see how they are to be sounded. Just in case for those who don’t read Katakana, I can tell you as below.
For boy, from top 1-10, Yuuto, Haruto, Yuuki, Souta, Kouki, Haruki, Riku, Yuuta, Hiroto, Syouta. For girl, from top 1-10, Yui, Miyu, Mei, Mio, Yuna, Hina, Aoi, Rio, Momoka, Sakura, Honoka, Yuuna. Hummm, some of them sound like foreign names…(@_@)
Personally I like these names a lot better than the familiar names from my childhood that ends with -ko. As for boy’s names I can see they are much different from my childhood, too. But you may prefer more Japanese-like names?

Now how about dog’s names? I named my dog “Pino” (or call her Pi-chan), which is not familiar at all, then what’s popular in Japan? Let’s take a look at the next chart from Anicom Insurance Inc. From left to right, total (mixed analytics), boy’s and girl’s.
*Disclaimer: The chart is quoted from this page of Anicom Insurance Inc.

popular names for dog 2008 popular names and unique names in Japan

Again, if you can read Katakana, you know how they’d sound. For boys, Choco, Maron, Sora, Leo, Kotarou, Leon, Kukkii, Kuu, Riku, Koko. For girls, Momo, Choco, Hana, Koko, Sakura, Maron, Nana, Rin, Moko, Miruku. …They are pretty similar between boys and girls, and some names can even used for human.
How did you like that? It might be interesting to name Japanese ones to your baby or to your dog if you really look for something unique.

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