Japanese Name Generator

Family name first, kana beside it

Japanese names put the family name first. A draw might read Kisaragi Sakuya 如月咲夜, with the kana (きさらぎ さくや) under it. The kana line matters, because kanji alone does not tell you the sound. The name Hajime can be written with at least 17 different kanji, and some readings exist only in names. The tool draws from 85 family names and 287 given names. The macrons in romaji, as in Satō, mark long vowels. Readings were checked against the JMnedict name dictionary.

The era filter, Heian to modern

Five eras are on offer. Heian names suit court ladies, with rare readings such as Rinshi. Edo gives samurai-age names ending in -suke and -nosuke, and women's names from plants, such as Ume and Matsu. Meiji and Taisho and Showa bring the -ko girls (Keiko, Sachiko) and boys ending in -o, such as Hideo. Modern gives Himari, Haruto and Sakura. A name from the wrong era is the quickest way to make a character feel off. Before the Meiji period, the -ko ending was kept for the imperial family.

Cast board and warnings

Deal a whole family puts one family name on a roles board, so parents and children match. Some cards show Check meaning: Sena, for instance, sounds like the English word for a herbal laxative. A few names are also famous as character names, so search before you give one to a hero. Details shows the kanji glosses, which come from the Unicode Unihan database and KANJIDIC2; see editorial standards. For lists, see girl names and boy names.