Character Naming Conventions or Themes

[nakimushi]

Have you ever noticed a show where all (or most) of the characters have names that seem to follow a convention or theme?

Some of them are obvious since they are either translated or in English in the first place, but some aren't readily apparent if they aren't translated.

Here's an example, in Desert Punk, which takes place in a future where the Earth has been turned into a desert planet, all of the main characters somewhat ironically have forms of water in their names.

水野 灌太 Mizuno Kanta (mizuno = water field) aka 砂ぼうず Sunabōzu/Desert Punk (sand boy is his work name)
小泉 太湖 Koizumi Taiko (small spring, great lake) aka 小砂 Kosuna (little sand is her work name)
朝霧 純子 Asagiri Junko (Asagiri = morning mist)
雨蜘蛛 Amagumo (rain spider)

The 川口 冬夫 Kawaguchi (river mouth) family has their own little variation, the four seasons:

川口 冬夫 Kawaguchi Fuyuo - Winter
川口 秋夫 Kawaguchi Akio - Autumn
川口 春夫 Kawaguchi Haruo - Spring
川口 夏子 Kawaguchi Natsuko - Summer



What other shows and naming themes/conventions - Japanese, English or translated can you think of?

[EmperorBrandon]

Mahoraba characters have a kind of color theme with the first kanji of family name.

蒼葉梢 Aoba Kozue (blue)
赤坂早紀 Akasaka Saki (red)
金沢魚子 Kanazawa Nanako (gold)
緑川千百合 Midorikawa Chiyuri (green)
紺野棗 Konno Natsume (dark blue)
白鳥隆士 Shiratori Ryuushi (white)
茶ノ畑珠実 Chanohata Tamami (brown)
桃乃恵 Momono Megumi (peach)
黒崎沙夜子 Kurosaki Sayoko (black)
黒崎朝美 Kurosaki Asami (black)
灰原由起夫 Haibara Yukio (gray)

[William K]

The classic case for this is Rayearth with their characters having names of car models :)

Not sure if it's intentional, but Kure-nai has characters with colours in their name, Kurenai, Murasaki, Benika, Ginko...

Does Aria with all its A girls count?

[The Great Bear]

Does Aria with all its A girls count?

In that case, it's not only the girls. After all, two of the guys are Al (Aru-kun) and Akatsuki. And "Woody"'s last name is Ayanokohji.

Aria definitely has an "A" thing going :sweat:

[Collectonian]

The wolves of Wolf's Rain

Kiba - fang
Toboe - howl
Tsume - claw
Hige - whisker

Not only fits what they are, but their personalities

[LordGeo]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Araki's penchant for naming characters and stands after music bands or singers.

I dare you to name another manga where you have beings named AC/DC, Limp Bizkit, Aerosmith, and Vanilla Ice!

[EmperorBrandon]

The classic case for this is Rayearth with their characters having names of car models :)


The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series also has several characters with car model names.

[EmperorBrandon]

Oh yeah, I remember noticing the "A" thing with Aria before.

Magic User's Club has a naming convention where the family and given names begin with the same sound for each character (Sawanoguchi Sae, Takakura Takeo, etc.)

[William K]

The classic case for this is Rayearth with their characters having names of car models :)


The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series also has several characters with car model names.

Now I know why I thought Vita, Subaru and Teana sounded familiar :P

[Lego]

The one that comes to mind right away is Gundam Wing where each name represented a number.

[nakimushi]

The classic case for this is Rayearth with their characters having names of car models :)


I forgot about that, I only remembered that the MKR main characters' names fit their powers or vice-versa:

Hikaru (light) -> Fire
Umi (sea) -> Water
Fuu (wind) -> Wind

[Splitter]

Much like Aria, the Manabi Straight girls' names begin with a variety of the five M syllables.

Manami "Manabi" Amamiya
Mei Etoh
Mika "Mikan" Inamori
Momoha "Momo" Odori
Mutsuki "Mucchi" Uehara

[William K]

Much like Aria, the Manabi Straight girls' names begin with a variety of the five M syllables.

Manami "Manabi" Amamiya
Mei Etoh
Mika "Mikan" Inamori
Momoha "Momo" Odori
Mutsuki "Mucchi" Uehara

and the m-syllable and the family names follow the 5 Japanese vowels

[GundamWingMan]

Well, some of the of characters from Scrapped Princess were named after weapons manufacturers. Case in point:

Pacifica, Shannon and Raquel Casull
Christopher Armalite
Winia Chester (or Winchester)
Steyr

Then there's characters from Sorcerer Hunters who are named after deserts:

Gateau Mocha
Tira Misu
Chocolate Misu
Saj Torte

[mrsparklenoodle]

Just wanted to say this is a really interesting thread, I've never noticed any of this before.

[Shiroi Hane]

The classic case for this is Rayearth with their characters having names of car models :)


The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series also has several characters with car model names.

As did Solty Rei

(Celica, Axela, Integra, Sylvia.. and I always thought Kasha might be Kärcher, as in the pressure washers)

The Kiddy Grade characters all have meaningful names, but there's not real theme to them other than the "sets".

[Victor Lewandowski]

The females in Happy Lesson have a couple of naming themes going on. All of their given names more or less match up with the old Japanese names for the months that the numbers that are part of their last names are.

1. Mutsuki Ichimonji
2. Kisaragi Ninomai
3. Yayoi Sanzein
4. Uzuki Shitennou
5. Satsuki Gokajou
6. Minazuki Rokumatsuri
7. Fumitsuki Nanakorobi
8. Hazuki Yazakura
9. Nagatsuki Kuron
10. Kanna Togakushi

[William K]

Maybe not a theme...but the 3 sisters in R.O.D TV (Michelle Cheung, Maggie Mui and Anita King) are named after the actresses Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh and the late Anita Mui. The 3 actresses were the main heroines in the movie The Heroic Trio.

And the Galaxy Angels teams seems to be named after desserts (Milfeulle, Blancmange, Stollen, Sherbet, Pudding) and spices (Mint, Vanilla, Marjoram, Anise)...and also places (Malibu and Kokomo)??

[nakimushi]

Well, here's two different nomenclatures for fairies:


I was always curious how in Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy, the Season Fairies are named after various seasonings, was that wordplay intentional? Season and seasoning are not close in Japanese AFAIK, but then again, the names are all in English.

Sugar
Pepper
Salt
Ginger
Cinnamon
Basil
Turmeric


Then there's the case of Bottle Fairy with a repeated syllable theme:

Hororo
Chiriri
Kururu
Sarara

[jlazar]

The residents of Maision Ikkoku all have names that correspond with their room numbers.

http://www.animeinfo.org/featured/mi/minumber.html

[Seahawk]

Here's something: quite a few of the Evangelion characters are named after naval vessels that served in World War II, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Neon_Genesis_Evangelion#Triv ia).

[Zalis]

Hmm, I knew about the numbers in the Happy Lesson character names, but not the months.

Shirakaba's minions in Nuku Nuku TV all had "directional" names:

Hidariko = Left Child (though -ko is only used to end girls' names afaik)
Migi[b]ko = Right~
[b]Ueko = Above~
Shitako ="Below~

Their positions/entrances on screen are all related to their names.

Numerous shows are fond of "seasonal" names in familes, like Desert Punk as noted above.

The Hayama family in Kodocha:
Akito - Autumn
Natsuki - Summer
Koharu - Spring
I can't recall the dad's exact name, but I'm 97% sure it's Fuyu[something] to fill in the Winter role.

The Yoshikawa family from Magikano:

Haruo - Spring
Maika - Summer (you'd normally expect "Natsu", but "ka" is another reading of the same kanji, and an examination of the Japanese credits reveals that her name does in fact use the "Summer" kanji)
Chiaki - Autumn
Fuyuno - Winter

In addition to the Scrapped Princess names listed by JeffB, the ANN Trivia (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2083&page=22) entry lists many, many more. In fact you'd be hard-pressed to find a name in that series that's not military/weaponry-related.

The girls in Shuffle! are all named after flowers of some sort.

The "good guys" in Sailor Moon are named according to their powers and corresponding planets:

Tsukino Usagi = Rabbit of the Moon
Mizuno Ami = Friend of Water,
Hino Rei = Spirit (?) of Fire
Kino Makoto = Truth (?really not sure about this one) of Trees
Aino Minako = Beautiful Child of Love
Chiba Mamoru = Protector of Earth
Kaioh Michiru = Sea King [given name in hiragana, no deeper meaning that I know of]
Ten'oh Haruka = Sky King [same deal]
Meioh Setsuna = Underworld King [given name in hiragana, but I like to think of "Setsuna" as "lonely"]
Tomoe Hotaru = Ground + "moe" (as in sprouting/budding) + [given name in hiragana, but homophonous to "firefly"]

Alternate readings of the kanji in their names are used in the planets--
Mizu ->sui +sei = Mercury
*Venus is an exception as the planet is kinsei, and "kin" (money/metal) doesn't appear in Minako's name*
hi -> kasei = Mars
ki -> mokusei = Jupiter
to -> dosei = Saturn
tenohsei = Uranus
kaiohsei = Neptune
meiohsei = Pluto

And many of the bad guys have some sort of metal or gemstone in their names.

The three sisters in Hime-chan's Ribbon, Aiko, Himeko, and Yumeko, have Love - Princess - Dream in their names.

The three sisters in Kokoro Library form a little phrase if you line them up youngest to oldest: Kokoro Aruto Iina ~> "It's good to have heart," which I picked up on before the show itself exploited that fact.

[EmperorBrandon]

*Venus is an exception as the planet is kinsei, and "kin" (money/metal) doesn't appear in Minako's name*

I suppose the reason for the exception in her case is that she was created prior to Sailor Moon in Sailor V, and so Takeuchi didn't have the name theme going at that point.