Ask John: Are the Meanings of Japanese Names Well-Known in Japan?

Question:
In reading over some of your past columns, I found the explanation of the title “Tenchi Muyo.” You stated that it was a joke, meaning, literally, “No need for Heaven,” as in, “I live with a bunch of girls – who needs heaven?” This being the case, I must assume that the meaning of many (if not most?) Japanese names are well-known among the culture. If not, no one would get that joke, right? So, why is this the case? After all, I don’t have the slightest idea of what the majority of American names mean.

Answer:
Allow me to first append the definition of Tenchi Muyo. While it is a pun, it’s actually a pun with two different meanings. “Tenchi Muyo” means both “no need for heaven,” and “this end up.” The commonly recognized translation of “tenchi muyo” in Japanese as “this end up,” signifies the topsy-turvy relationships and events in the series. But now to the main point. Most Western names either have little cultural meaning or are so distantly removed from their original associations as to not conjure any immediate mental associations. Many Japanese names, though, are actually commonly used Japanese words or have meanings commonly known to native speakers. Largely for this reason, anime and manga creators often utilize this characteristic and select names based on their implied or underlying meanings. In Street Fighter, for example, the name “Ryu” is the word for “dragon,” and the name “Ken” is also the Japanese word for “fist.” Sailor Moon’s name is Usagi Tsukino, or, in proper Japanese, Tsukino Usagi (tsuki no usagi), which literally means “rabbit of the moon.” This is both a reference to her status as the senshi of the moon, and a reference to a famous and well known Japanese fairy tale about a princess that lives with a rabbit on the moon. The main character of Go Nagai’s Delinquent In Drag is named Banji Suke, or in Japanese “Suke Banji,” a pun on the Japanese term for a female thug or rebel “sukeban.” The breast size of Lupin III’s Fujiko Mine has increased and diminished seemingly randomly over the years, but the name “Fujiko Mine” has always meant “twin peaks.” Rumiko Takahashi sometimes uses pun names in her creations. Kyoko Otonashi of Maison Ikkoku is characterized by her name. “Otonashi” is the Japanese word for “quiet.” Oyuki of Urusei Yatsura is the princess of the ice planet Pluto. Her name, literally “O yuki” is the Japanese phrase for “honorable snow.” Megane of Urusei Yatsura is the spectacle wearing leader of the “gang of four.” His name is literally the word for “eyeglasses.” Ataru Moroboshi’s name is a Japanese pun meaning “to be struck” which often happens to the foolish boy, and Lum’s name is merely an abbreviation of creator Rumiko Takahashi’s own name considering that technically “Rumiko” may also be spelled “Lumiko” in English. In Urusei Yatsura, Sakura Taisen, Card Captor Sakura and Hyper Police, the name “Sakura,” which literally refers to cherry blossoms, is given to females that represent distinctly Japanese characters- based on the strong traditional association of cherry trees to Japanese culture. Akira Toriyama, Satoru Akihori and Kazushi Hagiwara have also been known to select names based on puns or names that add comic effect. Many of the names in Dragonball are puns on Japanese words for food, clothing and musical instruments. Satoru Akihori also used foods and drinks to name characters in his Lamune & 40, Bakuretsu Hunter and Saber Marionette series. Many of the names in Kazushi Hagiwara’s Bastard! are puns on the names of Western heavy metal rock bands.

Anime character names with underlying meanings aren’t limited to only Japanese words either. Japan is a highly literate and extremely well educated country, so it should come as no surprise that foreign languages and influences get absorbed and utilized in anime. It wouldn’t seem at all odd to see foreign references in a New York Times bestseller. In Japan, anime is given the same sort of literary respect, so names from Greek mythology appear in St. Seiya, Arion, Five Star Stories, Akihabara Cyber Team and Nausicaa (Nausicaa was a Greek princess who was unafraid to help the shipwrecked Odysseus); the names of the goddesses in Ah! My Goddess come from Norse myth; Heavenly Sphere Shurato uses Hindu myth and names; both Hellsing and Cybernetic Guardian Saigard utilize names lifted directly out of Bram Stoker’s Dracula; the alien Cthulu race of Iczer-One were named after the horror fiction written the grand old gentleman from Providence, H.P. Lovecraft; Detective Conan chose his name as a combination of Japanese author Edogawa Rampo and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Golgo 13’s name is a combination of the superstition of 13 and the Biblical hill of skulls Golgotha; Castle in the Sky Laputa is based on Restoration era British literature, and Lupin the 3rd is a descendant of French literature. And on a more lowbrow level, the title “Project A-ko” is a reference to Jackie Chan’s famous kung-fu comedy Project A. (Jackie Chan is immensely popular in Japan.) And there are still even more basic English language name puns in anime. Smith Toren of Gunbuster is an insider joke compliment to American anime scholar and translator Toren Smith. And Justy Ueki Tylor’s name, of Irresponsible Captain Tylor, is simply an English language pun on “Just Awake Tylor.”

Certainly some of the name references in anime are quite obscure, and many are chosen because they have significance only to the author, but it should be assumed that a great number of these subtle references are ones that Japanese fans do recognize and understand.