184

New Light on the Riddle of Kirakira Names in Japanese
西原麻衣（John Gatewood ゼミ）

1. Introduction

recommendations to visit hospitals during usual
visitation hours. In other words, the medical

My relative's son has an unusual name. Hisintern hinted that the parents who give theirname is 蒼樹 Sōju , which in Japanese is madechildren kirakira names might be somehow

up of two kanji 蒼 sou, meaning‘blue’and 樹 ju ,socially inept or unintelligent.

‘tree.’In all honesty, I was quite surprisedThis comment brings up an importantby the name when I first heard it, because I

question. Is it true that parents who givethought the name sounded like a kirakira name.

their children kirakira names are actually

Kirakira （literally,‘shiny’）is the term given tosocially inept or unintelligent? Though thisunusual and or unreadable first names in Japan.

paper furnishes an argument against those

These names are sweeping the nation of Japan

opinions, what I would really like to show isin popularity these days, but at the same timethat kirakira names reflect a number of recent

kirakira names have been widely criticized.

and some historical social conditions in Japan.

For example, Byokan Sunday , an internet news

The study was undertaken in order to point out

website, ran an article about kirakira names.

the Japanese legal system and Japanese social

A summary of the article is as follows. News

situation’s influence on kirakira naming trends.

s most popular
Zero , which is one of Japan’

I will show the definition and some examples ofnews programs, broadcast that one emergency

kirakira names, or DQN names, as they are also

room doctor had suggested that kirakira names

sometimes called.

might be a cause for making medical mistakeson Twitter and his twitter was flooded bycomments on August 8th, 2013. Some members

2. Definition and examples of kirakira namesof the audience who watched it criticized this

2.1 Definition of kirakira names （or DQN

naming trend on Twitter. They said things like

Names）“The parents who named their children withFirst, I will quote one definition of kirakira

kirakira names are terrible.”and“I pity children

names from Akihabara News , which is an

who were given kirakira names.”

internet news website that is published in

In addition, Yushi Matsuura, who is a medical
intern of the Japanese Red Cross Medical

Japanese and English.

Kirakira literally means“shiny”or“sparkly”

Center in Wakawama Prefecture, published aand what is going on is kids are getting

paper in 2015. The title was“What do we doshiny new names that look or sound cute orwhen patients with kirakira names come to theinteresting, but are unintelligible to all but

Emergency Room?”According to that paper,

the kid’s parents. The Chinese Kanji are

they insisted that the parents who gave their

being used as a phonetic symbol rather thanchildren kirakira names do such things as decide

for the meaning of the kanji. And names are

to visit hospitals after midnight in spite ofbeing given that sound like characters from

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New Light on the Riddle of Kirakira Names in Japanese

animation films or games.
In other words, kirakira names are“shiny”orhave a feature which are used a part of word’ssyllables. 愛 means‘love’and the most general“sparkly”Japanese names. Those names arepronunciation is“a-i ”and it has two syllables,

unique and generally unintelligible, which is toa and i, not“a.”Parents probably using the“a”

say, they are unreadable using conventional

syllable from the start of 愛. The following iskanji rules. DQN, which is pronounced dokyun ,same type as the above example. Mamafam , isis an internet slang term meaning a stupid

an information magazine for families who live inperson or behaving foolishly. On the Internet,

Akita Prefecture. In this publication there arethose kirakira names are also called DQN names

girls named 莉愛 Ri-a.

out of spite. According to NicoNicopedia , theterm DQN is derived from a television program

2.2.2 Kirakira names which use unusual nanori

named“Witnessing! Dokyun ”broadcast fromI will examine nanori further in the next

1994 to 2002. Some people have insisted thatchapter. Nanori is a special pronunciation system

DQN is a discriminatory term because it is used

whose pronunciations are only used in Japanese

to denote a stupid person, one to be looked down

people’s names. Some pronunciations of nanori

upon. To argue this point would carry us too far

are normally used when giving names, however

away from the purpose of this paper, so I will

recently some parents have been choosing

leave that problem untouched. From this point,

unusual nanori pronunciations.

I will use the term kirakira names to refer to

柳原愛子, Yanagihara Naruko（1859 –1943）

the new types of first names that some medical

was a concubine of Emperor Meiji and she waspersonnel are currently criticizing in Japan.

the mother of Emperor Taishō. 愛子 usually is
not read Naruko , however, according to the kanji

2.2

Examples of kirakira names

dictionary, it can be read this way. 愛 has 13

These names first gave rise to public

nanori readings, and one is naru . Choosing thesecontroversy in 1993. A father sued to get

unusual nanori readings is one type of kirakira

permission to give his child the name akuma , thename.

Japanese word for devil. The father discussed

Another example is 真心（Masamune ）which

the name with municipal office staff workers andis a masculine name as reported on the Wakaba

was rejected. But in the end, he gave his child

Maternity clinic’s homepage. 真心 means

another name. Since this was reported widely‘true heartedness or sincerity’in Japanesein the media, the Japanese public has paid

and it is usually pronounced magokoro . I could

special attention to these strange and seemingly

not understand why 真心 is read masa-mune.

senseless names from that time on. I have

Pronunciation of masa is the usual pronunciation,

classified kirakira names into the four categories

however I cannot read 心 as mune . Researching

below based on A Study of Kirakira Names bynanori pronunciations of 心, it turns out that

Hitomi Ito.

there is a nanori pronunciation of mune for this2.2.1 Kirakira names that are like a part ofpronunciations and choosing them causes people

word’s syllables

to label children’s names as kirakira names.

kanji. People cannot read these unusual nanori

According to Tamahiyo , a magazine which
researched the most popular names in 2015, 結
愛—standing third on the list— was pronounced

Yu-a . According to Hiromi Ito, kirakira names

2.2.3 Kirakira names using okiji

Okiji is the term for kanji which are left
unpronounced when reading Chinese characters.

186

There are many kirakira names which use

2.2.5 International-sounding Kirakira names

okiji . For example, a boy who was named 晴

Below are some kirakira names that fit）was
空 , usually read as Seikū ,（lit.‘clear sky’

into the category of international or western

introduced on Kongetsu-no akachan , which is

influenced names, which were given on Takkett ,a homepage of the Shiina maternity clinic. One

an on-line website for names.

might also think this name is read as Haru-

The name 真九州 is read as Makkusu . The

sora, or Sei-sora. This name is not read as Seikū ,child’s parents were obviously trying to findrather, it is used as Sora . Thus the 晴 of 晴 空

characters that would fit the sound of theis an okiji , a redundant kanji contributing noWestern name, Max. Another, 明日 , read ashita ,pronunciation.

the Japanese word for tomorrow, is meant to bepronounced as Tomoroh . This is another case of

2.2.4 Examples of kirakira names that are likea foreign language reading given to a Japaneseword association games

kanji character. 美凪子 is pronounced Biinasu ,Some names resemble word association games;

almost in line with some of the kanji’s actual

they are like games of match the pronunciation.

pronunciations. The characters respectively

A Japanese newspaper named Asahi Shinbun

mean‘beauty’‘calm’,, and‘child’or‘young

published a name, written 月 that is pronounced

woman,’with the last one often appearing at

Luna , or Runa . 月 actually means‘moon’and is

the end of girl’s names. Because the Japanese

pronounced tsuki in Japanese, while luna is thelanguage lacks the‘v’sound, this is the closest

Latin word for moon. This name is an example

to Venus this girl’s parents could get to namewhere parents decided to match another

their daughter. Finally comes 音“oto ,”thelanguage pronunciation with kanji meanings.

Japanese way to pronounce sound, which theAnother example, reported by the website

parents decided to read as Rizumu , or Rhythm.

DQN Names, is the child’s name 紗冬, which

What makes this particularly strange is thatis inexplicably pronounced Sugā . One ofthough this kanji is used for the word music, it

pronunciation of 紗 is sa and one of theis in no way associated with beats or keeping

pronunciations for 冬 is tō . The Japanese wordrhythm.

for sugar is 砂糖 satō . In other words, 紗冬

Rioko Kurihara, who is an expert in onomancy,

can read as satō , a homonym for the Japanese

which is a type of astrology based on order andword for sugar. It seems this child’s parents

number of strokes in kanji names, published aassociated the reading of 紗冬, satō with thebook entitled Sekai de Tsuujiru Namae Bukku

word 砂糖, satō ,‘sugar.’This is a strange（‘A Book on How to Give Names That are

example of a kirakira name created via English

Used Worldwide’）,to provide some international

meaning and pronunciation. A third example

names. This book is enough evidence to show

is the name 宇宙, meaning‘outer space’andthat some parents have a desire to give theiris pronounced uchu . Using these characters,

children international names.

some parents have named their child Nasa , inanother incredible word association game. Of

2.2.6 Names based on how they soundcourse, this pronunciation is completely wrong,

Naomi Matsushima, who is an entertainer inand no Japanese would be able to read the name

Japan, made her first daughter’s name public on

without instruction.

her weblog. Her first daughter’s name is Lara ,written as 空詩 . 空 means sky and 詩 is poem
in Japanese. 空 has two syllables, so and ra . Her

187
New Light on the Riddle of Kirakira Names in Japanesemother probably used the second syllable at thestandard on-yomi and kun-yomi . According to

end of a word for the pronunciation. However

the koseki-hō , the nanori pronunciations of kanji

there are strong doubts about 詩. 詩“shi ”isare the only ones that are permitted to be usednever pronounced ra . In my opinion, this kanji

in names.

was chosen to improve the image of her name.

The figure below indicates a variety of

According to her weblog, she was calling thepronunciations of the character for bi （美）. Bi

baby Lara temporarily during pregnancy.

means‘beauty’in Japanese and it is one of theConsequently, she did not relate to other names.

most popular kanji and it is often for girl inIn this respect, it can be presumed that Naomi,
names. For examples, 美咲（misaki ‘beautiful

Matsushima concentrated on names with a nice,scent’）, 美海（mibloom’）,美香（mika‘beautiful

ring or appearance when she named her baby.

.）The kanji has a single kunu‘beautiful sea’yomi and on-yomi pronunciation respectively,

3. The system of Koseki-hō
3.1 Naming customs and laws in Japan
In Japan, there is a law called Family
Registration or Koseki-hō , which provides thebut also a total of fifteen nanori pronunciations.
However, the other nonori pronunciations except, are not usual pronunciations. There arefor‘bi ’few people who even know about these otherpronunciations.

guidelines for giving names. The koseki is thesystem by which births, deaths, marriages, anddivorces of Japanese nationals are recorded.
Here, let us devote some time to understandhow names are given to newborn babies inJapan.
3.1.1 Japanese scripts – hiragana and katakana
Before explaining some of the detailed
ways of naming newborn babies in Japan, wemust understand a little about the written
Japanese language. In Japanese there are three
written scripts; hiragana, katakana, and kanji.

Figure…1:…Pronunciation…of…美Hiragana and katakana consist of 46 charactersrespectively, and each character has a single
pronunciation.

The other example is 太, the most popularmasculine kanji for naming in 2016. This has two
Japanese and Chinese readings and 15 nanori

3.1.2 Japanese kanji characters
Almost every Japanese kanji character has
multiple pronunciations. It is possible to divide

readings, for example, 太郎, Tarō and 太一,
Taichi. These same nanori pronunciations are
not usual pronunciations.

these pronunications into two categories; Chinese
readings, on-yomi and Japanese readings, kun-

3.2 Kanji used in naming

yomi . Added to these, a few kanji also have a

According to the koseki-hō, the characterspronunciation of a system called the nanori . The

when used as names are decided by government

nanori are that kanji character readings used inauthorites. Some kanji are only permitted to be

Japanese people's names which differ from theused in personal names. The following articles

188

are directly quoted from the webpage of 2016

characters in 1981. According to the Japanese

Ministry of Justice, Chapter IV Notifications

agency for Cultural Affairs, there are 2928 kanji

Section 2 Birth Article 50.

characters that can be used in giving names.

（1）For the given name of a child, charactersthat are simple and in common use shall be
used.

3.2.3 The increase in“feeling kanji”
Even if we have not learned a kanji’s meaning,（2）The scope of characters that are simple

we can sometimes recognize kanji as“feelingand in common use shall be defined bycharacters.”For example, some parents have

Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice.
There are 983 approved name kanji that arerequested to use the characters 腥 which is
pronounced sei or shō. 腥 , 胱 , kō and 憃 , oroka

only permitted to be used in personal names.

for naming. 腥 is composed of the characters

Known as jinmeiyō kanji, these were a separate

for moon（月）and star（星）however, 腥 has

category from the commonly used characters

nuances of fishy, raw, meat, or dirty. The kanji

called jōyō kanji.

腥 looks beautiful but the meaning is not suitable

3.2.1 Tōyō kanji（meaning‘bladder’or‘rubber bag for collecting

for a person’s name. Also, characters such as 胱
In 1946, after World War II, the Japaneseurine’）and 憃（means‘foolish’）do not haveministry redesignated 1850 kanji characters

appropriate meanings for use in a person’swhich were permitted for daily use, known as

name.

the 当用漢字（tōyō kanji‘, kanji used for the time
being’.）This limit was purposed to promote the

3.3 Lack of laws regarding kanji for names

Romanization of the Japanese language（Society

The second reason how kirakira names reflect

for the Romanization of the Japanese Alphabet）.

problems with the Japanese law system is that

However, this limit was not applied for giving

there is no provision in which parents should

names. Then there are many unreadable names

decide how we pronounce kanji for names. I will

which use difficult kanji.

explain simply. In the former section, I explained

The kanji which could be used in given namesthat parents should use the designated 2928

was limited when in December 1947 the koseki-kanji in personal names from the Ministry ofhō （Registration Law）was proclaimed. Since

Justice’s Ordinance. There are regulations whenthen, only 1850 tōyō kanji were permitted togiving names, however, there is no provision inchoose from when giving names. However somewhich parents decide how we should pronounce

parents petitioned for the loosening of thesekanji for names. Therefore some parents use

regulations because some popular name kanjis

names which are difficult to read when naming

were permitted. As parents requested, The

children.

Japanese government decided to add 92 kanji
additional characters to the list of jinmeiyō kanji .

3.4 Too many conditions for“the perfect name”

A few years later, after World War II, theParents now tend to worry that they must

Japanese education standard was extremely

give their children the“perfect name.”Thishigh and the Japanese Language Council insisted

trend has been reported by Kobayashi Kosei,on the importance of kanji for daily use. As

a professor at Kyoto Bunkyo University.

petitioned, the Japanese government announced

According to Kobayashi, it is difficult to makethat jōyō kanji , which included tōyō kanji, wasthe perfect name, because there are too many

then additionally increased by another 95 kanji

standards in giving names.

189
New Light on the Riddle of Kirakira Names in JapaneseFirst, the kanji’s meaning is vital. It is notgood to use kanji which have negative meanings
for names. In the previous chapter, I mentioned

4. Kirakira names reflect social conditions
4.1 Before kirakira names became popularthat parents want to add the kanji such as 腥, 胱

Kunio Makino, who is a researcher of namingand 憃 to the list of kanji which can be used inpractices, clearly shows that names reflect socialnames. Of course, well-chosen names would notconductions in his book. According to his book,contain these negative kanji. A second condition

Kodomo-no-namae ga abunai , we can divideis the combination of kanji.

them into three categories. First, there are some

The balance of the kanji’s first name andnames coined during the World War II. Second,family name is important. For example, 福田 恵

there are some names that were used during the里（Fukuda Eri）. Every kanji in this that namefood shortage in the post-World War II period.

contains a variation of 田（ta,‘a rice field’）.

Finally, there are the names that sound foreignThus that name might be considered to not be

or new.

in good balance. Other examples are 森 村 麻 李

When Japan was at war, Japanese believed（Morimura Maki）which contains a multitude

that they were destined to win the war.

of trees（ 木 ）, and 沢 渡 潤 治（Sawatari Junji）

However, at a pivotal point in World War II,

which contains too many water markers“氵,”the Japanese navy was heavily defeated in the

represented by the three-stroke radical to theBattle of Midway Island in 1942. When theleft of each character.

future looked black, some names that related toThird, there exists a common superstition

victory in war were popular, for example, 進 , 勇regarding number of strokes in your nameand 勝（62-65）. After World War II was over,determining your fortune. This divination bypeople suffered from the food shortage. At thatthe total number of strokes in kanji is calledtime it was popular to give names which are

onomancy. It is a foretelling which predicts a

related food and crops such as 茂 , 実 , 豊（66）.

person’s fortune by the total number of strokes

From 1929 to 1968, Hiroshi was the mostin the kanjis of family and first name. However,

popular boy’s name, represented by a number

there are numberless school in Japan and ifof different one- and two-character names

parents want to give their children a perfectsuch as 博 and 宏. In 1964, overseas travelname of all school, they can never decide it. I

was deregulated, and the number of Japanese

showed a feature of kirakira names based ongoing abroad increased rapidly. In other words,

how they sound in the second chapter. Parents

everyday Japanese were usually not able totend to decide on names how they sound.

travel aboard by 1964. Parents desired that their

If the total number of strokes is not good ischildren would actively go all over the world,that, parents have to research for other kanjis

so Hiroshi was the most popular name in thosethat have same pronunciations. The resultdays.

parents are swayed by onomancy and it causes
difficulty in picking kanji for names. In thesecond chapter, I introduced the name Lara.

4.2 Reflecting a desire for individuality
Kunio Makino asserts that names reflect

Actually, her mother, Ms. Matsushima placed

prevailing social conditions. If that is so, what

importance on onomancy. As can be seen, theresocial conditions do kirakira names reflect?

are many conditions for the perfect name andTayoshi Doi, in his book entitled Kosei othese conditions have made the children’s names

Aorareru Kodomotachi, posits that contemporary

problem all the more complicated.

Japanese are looking for individuality or

190

uniqueness in their naming customs. Afterare not suitable for person’s names, the problem

the postwar period of high economic growth,is getting worse.

Japan became a rich and prosperous country.

These are some of the Japanese social

Japanese have been able to get material wealth.

situation influences kirakira naming trends. As

It’s now an age in which they can also acquire

I showed, kirakira names are the symbol ofindividuality.

parents giving their children individuality. After

There is further evidence to show that parents

the high economic growth period of the 1990s,

tend to give unique names. Tamago Kurabu , athese old and contemporary trends have effectmagazine read by about one third of expectant

on names in Japan. It is now the age where

Japanese mothers, often contains various names

Japanese can“acquire”individuality though theirfor those who are looking for good ideas togive names for their children. Tamago Kurabu

names, and parents are given their children
kirakira names to magnetize their children’sprovided examples of unique names in their July

personalities.

2013 issue and many issues since.

5. Conclusion

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