Japan's Most Popular Baby Names - 2020
A survey conducted by the baby goods retail chain Akachan Honpo reported names chosen for 18,199 girls and 18,617 boys born between January 1st and October 20th of this year. I don't know why reading and Kanji have different charts. I think the numbers with the name are last year's rankings.
Respondents were asked what they considered when choosing names. The most common answer was the sound of the name, second was the meaning and the image of the kanji, and third was the number of strokes used to write the name. Many parents count the number of strokes in both the given name and the family name to make sure it does not come out to be an unlucky number. (There are no middle names in Japanese).
I like hiragana names such as Sakura and Akari above. Names seem to go in and out of popularity, maybe based on celebrities or famous people at the time. When I was young, there were many girls with my same first name, but the popularity of it faded out later. I've always liked my name, but I've known of people who shortened theirs or went by a middle name because they weren't fond of the names they were given.
Is your given name popular, or was it when you were given it? Were you named after someone in your family or a famous person? Do you like your name? I'm always curious about names.
5 comments:
I was named Jennifer Ellen (Ellen after my mother's aunt). "Jennifer" was sternly said when I was in trouble!!! Actually my brother named me, he was 4 years older than me. I was to be called Penelope, but Peter kept asking when was Jenny coming home. When I was little Peter called me "Blossom".
Names are interesting, mine is a very 1950's name I think, I shorten it to Sue and when someone says Susan I think I am in trouble!! Sue sounds more friendly and informal I think.
Japanese names are complicated, some names are so unusual not even scholars can read them without consulting a thick dictionary.
I like my name because I think it suits me. I also believe it is a classic name that has never gone in and out of fashion but kept a steady popularity. The best thing is that you can't play games with, or rhyme with it, like you can with Daisy (Laizy). Nor is there a need for shortening it. It is perfect in Japan where EVERYONE can pronounce it, but English speaking people always stumble on it.
I think people here go by the sound of the name but it's so interesting to hear of the importance of the kanji with it.
I think there are two charts because some names can be written with different kanji, and some kanji can be read as different names, so they wouldn't naturally line up. Very interesting concept, those Japanese names!
My name is pretty rare, both my first and middle name actually. There are some more common variations, like Leonora and Eleonore, but I've never met an other Leonore so far!
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