Sailor Moon Japanese Name Meanings

For starters Hotaru is firefly.

Second Tomoe (although the girl's name tomoe can either mean Swirl or Friend Picture) in Hotaru's last name DOES mean Earthly (so it should be Earthly Firefly)

Why does it mean Earthly?

Did you know that the Japanese had names for the planets? Mercury was Suisei (Water Star) Mars was Kasei (Red Star, but CAN be Fire Star) Jupiter was Mokusei (Wood Star), Venus was Kinsei (Gold/Metal Star) and Saturn was Dosei (EARTH Star). They were following the Chinese on this, they used the five elements (Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Earth) to name the five planets that they considered Inner planets (you heard me, so to them only Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are outer planets). Then to name the other three planets, the Americans had already named them Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, so they went to doing it liek this for these thre, Neptune was Kaiousei, which means Sea King Star (because Neptune was the god of the sea) Uranus became Tenousei (meaning Heaven King Star, this I'm still trying to understand) and Pluto became Meiousei (Dark King Star, because Pluto was the god of death). see how it works? This also explains last names in SM, the three outer senshi last names are just their planet's japanese names without the sei on the end. For the other five (minus moon) it was different words for their elements, Sui = Mizu, Ka = Hi, Moku = Ki, Kin = Ai (okay, not for this one, this one was because Venus was the goddess of love), and then because the no thing was to show the inner senshi, Naoko made Hotaru's last name Tomoe, becuase Dono sounds dumb.

See? Me a smartie pants.


Miko: Ya know what I really hate be-sides the mis-prounoucing of Hotaru? The mis-pronoucing of Haruka and Michiru. It's supposed to be 2 sylables, not 3, so Haruka is Haru-ka, and Michiru is Michi-ru, bnot Ha-ROOO-ka or Mi-CHIII-ru as I have heard many otakus say. x_x

 

Now it's starting to make sense to me. If Mars is "Kasei", That would explain why Mars's introduction speech is "Kasei ni Kawatte Sekkan yo!". Now for the Outers: Kai is sea (I'm sure of that). ou is.. king? and sei is star?

 

Exactly.

Arcueid, do you remember that fanfic I showed you, SMNeo? Did you take a peak at SMGenesis by any chance? It was a fanfic written by the same girl, excpet it took place in the Silver Millennium, heh heh, she had the Sailor Senshi's name's names be Princess Venus de Kinsei, and her mom was like Queen Dione de Kinsei, or Sailor Kinsei. *nods* Yup, the girl that wrote it and her boyfriend were the one that told me all this stuuf, her bf is 100% Japanese. (which I'm sure I've said a good couple times).

Queen Maia de Suisei is cool.

 

What about the Inners though? First of all, Mizuno Ami. Mizu -> Water, no -> Of, Ami -> Friend ? How exactly does it work? I know the meanings but I don't know how EXACTLY it's divided in the name.

Mizuno Ami -> Friend of Water
Hino Rei -> Spirit of Fire
Kino Makoto -> Wisdom of Trees
Aino Minako -> Surrounded by Love and Beauty

 

Well, no in Japanese last names is supposed to be field (the regular kanji) but I think the kanji given in SM was DEFIANTLY of (even tho of is on every Japanese name anyways, like if my name was Kiyomizu Kaede, there's no 'no' but it'd still be Maple tree of the Pure Water *can't help laughing*)

Actually Mizuno IS a real Japanese name but the Kanji is still meaning Water Field (there's alot of different kanji for field, holy s***. you're got da, hara, no... confusing. )

One minute let me consault the name guide I got...

Well if they were regular names with regular kanji they'd be this (cutted down by kanji, btw):

Mizuno Ami = (I really don't get how people got firned out of this. is probably more weird kanji Naoko gave) sub/Asia (the character does not mean 'Asia', it means 'sub', it is used in writing 'Asia.' Treat this 'a' as meaningless) + Beauty [of the] Water + Field
Hino Rei = (I also do not understand how spirit was gotten out of this. Creepy really, but she may have used the kanji form Yuurei, which is like phantom/ghost) Graceful Fire+Field
Kino Makoto = (Mako-chan's name always meant this, not wisodm ) Sincerity [of the] Wood+Field
Aino Minako = (there is a LOT of different meanings for this...)Beauty+'where' (meaningless)+child [of the] Love+Field
Tsukino Usagi = Rabbit [of the] Moon+field

And although I was only gonna do the inners...
Tenou Haruka = Spring+Scent (is RARELY written as Distant, though it can be, like it is in SM) [of the] Heaven+king
Kaiou Michiru = Path/Road+Flow (which can be altered to mean Mature) Sea+King
Meiou Setsuna = Section + "where" [of the] Dark King

But this is generally screwed up, the names in SM are all POOR puns (in my opinion). But when it comes to Japanese names, it don't matter if a name like Chiaki has one meaning, it's the kanji given in the name, so with different kanji Chiaki can mean, Chiaki - (1) Thousand + Autumn; (2) Thousand + 'sub/Asia' + Chronicle; (3) Thousand + Crystal. So spelling is more important in name meanings to the Japanese...

But due to the kanji given in the SM Manga...

Mizuno Ami = Friend of the Water
Hino Rei = Spirit of the Fire
Kino Makoto = Sincerity of Wood
Aino Minako = Beatuiful Child of Love
Tsukino Usagi = Rabbit of the Moon
Tenou Haruka = Distant Heaven King
Kaiou Michiru = Mature Sea King
Meiou Setsuna = Instant Dark King
Tomoe Hotaru = Earthly Firefly

So yeah... it all has to do with Kanji... That's how they're divided, by kanji.

And as for ou meaing king... I bet you thought oh meant king didn't ya? Well, in Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh was Yuugi-ou. (and there doens't need to be a damn no every where to eman of for crying out loud. )

 

In the anime, from my sources (Which is the information I acquired from many websites and such), Here are the true meanings:

Japanese Name: Chiba Mamoru
Name meaning: Earth Protector

Japanese Name: Tsukino Usagi
Name Meaning: Rabbit of the Moon

Japanese Name: Chibi-Usagi (Chibi-Usa)
Name Meaning: Small Rabbit

Japanese Name: Mizuno Ami
Name Meaning: Friend of Water

Japanese Name: Hino Raye
Name Meaning: Spirit of Fire

Japanese Name: Aino Minako
Name Meaning: Surrounded by Beauty of Love

Japanese Name: Kino Makoto
Name Meaning: Wisdom of Trees

Japanese Name: Tomoe Hotaru
Name Meaning: Glowing, of Earth

Japanese Name: Kaiou Michiru
Name Meaning: Full, King of the Ocean

Japanese Name: Ten'ou Haruka
Name Meaning: Swinging Cloud and Sky King

Japanese Name: Meiou Setsuna
Name Meaning: King of Dead

Japanese Name: Kou Seiya
Name Meaning: Light of the Star Arrow

Japanese Name: Kou Yaten
Name Meaning: Light of the Night sky

Japanese Name: Kou Taiki
Name Meaning: Light of the big air

 

Most of those are 100% correct.

Chiba Mamoru, I remember, another girl I know asked the one that taught me all this, cause she had it (Chiba that is) listed as Thousand Leaves. Turns out it normally Chiba does mean, but in SM due to the kanji it means Earth.


For Minako, like I said, there is THOUSANDS of meanings for it, but I choose the literal one.

Also, for Minako it is posisble Naoko took the latin word Mina (which means love of course) and added the popular -ko (which mans child) to make a different version of Love Child (since Aiko is so old fashioned. ) It is possible but we might not know...

Where'd you get Makoto meant Wisdom from? Every site I've been too has also said Sincerity (which it was really meant to be.. one person once said it was Faith.... )

Speaking of which, where the frick and frack did you get that Hotaru translation from as well? that one's REALLY whack. Every site I ahve been too says Firefly. And as for Tomoe, yup pretty sure it;s Earthly.

*looks at Haruka meaning* WHOA!!!!! *has to re-adjust eyes* You're. Kidding. Me. Makes Haruka sound like she's a swing dancer. Nope it's Distant.

Yargh I never did pay attentio to the starlights. I memorized it once and then forgot it. But I;m surprised I didn't figure Seiya out, I was pondering the other night what it emant (I already knew Sei meant star, didn't knwo about ya) and it was right under my nose!!! I've known ya is comingly arrow in Boys names. Can't believe I didn't figure it out. (Ohh... Kazuya, Masaya, Sakuya... damn awesome boys names, names with ya damn well rule. ) I actually named a character in a fic Kazuya (Harmony Arrow).

But yeah, I never did pay attention to the Starlights.

But some of those are whack. Can you show me your sources? I've been to many SM sites on the wbe before but none of them have given me those tranlastions.

 

My Source is: The Sailor Moon Hideaway Look in the Character Profiles I really like the SM Hideaway, It's one of the best sites out there and a member of the "Cult of Serenity". Hasn't been updated in a while but still, It's an awesome site!

 

i remember seeing hotaru's name as meaning 'glowing of earth', i just dont remember where

 

Ohhhhh!!! That site! Oh yes I love that place, too bad his (is it a guy? I always thought the webmaster was a guy...) translations are whack. O_O

Here are ONE of my sources. I generally don't got to SM apges anymore... I never even remember the anmes of the sites I've been too, but when was younger I went to them ALL and read every new profile. The scariest moonie ever...
But this site, did you know the girl I was syaing taught me all this and the girl that runs this site ran the Anti-Sailor Mercury page!? Seriously, they did. Does anyone remember that page? It was the damn best.... *is laughing so hard she falls over*
http://eternalsailormoon.org/

 

Friend in french is "Ami", that may have something to do with it.

 

I'm just going to be nit-picky about the part about Michiru and Haruka's names being two syllables and not three -- that's not correct. If you were to write the names using hiragana, or write the hiragana over the kanji for those of us who can't read kanji due to our immense lack of knowledge (*wink*), there would be three syllables: ha-ru-ka and mi-chi-ru. What you mean, FR, is (I think) that people Americanize the names and put too much emphasis on the middle syllables. It may sound like two syllables, though, because the Japanese tend to slur their u's and i's when they're snuggled between other letters (or at the end of words -- desu is often said to sound like des, but the hiragana are still de-su). There's also the fact that in Japanese it sounds more like HA-ru-ka and MI-chi-ru. In Spanish, people would pronounce it Ha-RU-ka and Mi-CHI-ru because there aren't any accents in the names.

...sorry about that. ^^; I am nit-picky in every language I know at least a bit of. (I'm also nit-picky about the Ha-RU-ka/Mi-CHI-ru issue, but not so much. ^^)

That thing about "ami" is that it means "friend" in French. My trusty Sailormoon RPG and Resource Book suggests an alternate translation, separating the A and MI kanji in her name -- it then becomes "Asian beauty of water".

I would type up the name translations that book provides, except I don't have the book on hand. (It's all the way across the house... *pouty* ^^)

 

That's quite a valid translation -- I wonder what the official readings for their names are, as they all seem to have multiple meanings.

Do try to get that book when you have time; I'm interested in reading more.

 

Rawr. I left the book at home. XD I'll get it in November when I go back. I'll make a point of it. ^_~ I'll also try to find the official readings; maybe I'll buy some imported manga if I get the chance.

And also, I learned about pitch accents in Japanese -- so it's wrong to stress ANY syllable too much, really. (Pitch accents are weird, especially when you're used to stress accents...) Wow. Dude. I can't wait to learn kanji. XD

 

First of all, this is my first post here.

Second, I don't want to sound like a pompous know-it-all, but I do see some things that I know that are not right.

Yes, the Japanese word hotaru (ほたる or 蛍) means firefly.

Hotaru's surname, Hotaru (土萠) does not mean earthly, swirl, or friend picture.

土 (to) means earth or soil, and 萠 means to germinate or to sprout.

巴 refers to a comma design, so I suppose that is where you got the idea of swirl.

The kanji for Kasei is 火星, and although 星 can mean star, 火 does not mean red. 火 means fire. Red Star can be 赤星 in Japanese.

If the Japanese names of the planets are thought to follow the Five-Element motif, then Kinsei (金星) would best to be translated as Metal Star when the 金 element is thought of as Metal.

Before the planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered in more recent times (1781, 1846, and 1930, respectively), the Japanese wouldn't have known about them. The general consensus, even in Japan, is that the outer planets in the solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto because the asteroid belt is thought to be the boundary between the area of the inner planets and the area of the outer planets. Such a consensus came about from the science of astronomy, which is more highly regarded than other fields such as astrology.

Some astrologers think that only Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are the only outer planets (see the books in the Super Horoscope series), while others think that only Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are outer planets (see the book Mysteries of the Unknown: Cosmic Connections). Still others, such as the famous astrologer Sydney Omarr, go along with the general consensus: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

As for the planetary sailor soldiers of the solar system, none of them are said to be in their respective groups simply because of where their planets are in the solar system. In other words, just because Sailor Jupiter was chosen to be one of the guardians of Princess Serenity doesn't mean that the planet Jupiter is considered an inner planet in the series. She could be a soldier of the inner solar system because she is primarily concerned with things on Earth, but that doesn't mean that her planet is not an outer planet.

Haruka's surname (天王) and the Japanese name of the planet that you are referring to (天王星) can be comfusing. 天王星, Haruka's surname, indicates only one "n": Ten'ō. However, 天王星 indicates two "n"s: Tenn'ōsei.

In Greek mythology, Ouranos was a sky god. Uranus is a Latinized form of his name.

Pluto was primarily the lord of the underworld and ruler of the dead. The Greek god of death was Thanatos (meaning death in Greek). Mors (meaning death in Latin) was the Roman counterpart.

Those are just different readings of the kanji:

水: sui or mizu
火: ka or hi
木: moku or ki

If Hotaru's surname went along with the pattern that is used for the surnames of Usagi and the Four Guardians, it would be Tono rather than Dono (because of the change of readings, such as ka to hi for 火). Moreover, the idea that "Dono" sounds dumb really is more of a matter of opinion.

I'm not particularly sure whether Ms. Takeuchi didn't use "no" for Hotaru's surname simply to indicate that the girl is not part of the Usagi-Guardians group. I mean, Hotaru eventually joins up with Haruka-tachi, but her surname doesn't follow the Tenn'ōsei/Kaiōsei/Meiōsei motif.

Strictly, the names Haruka and Michiru are indeed pronounced as three syllables. Haruka's name is written as はるか in Japanese, where each character represents one syllable: は ha, る ru か ka. The three characters in Michiru's name, みちる, represent three syllables. However, you are right in saying that the names are not pronounced "Ha-ROOO-ka" and "Mi-CHIII-ru."

That is one of my pet peeves.

Ami's full name is written in Japanese as 水野亜美, but 野 does not mean of, and 亜美 does not mean friend.

の is the possessive particule that indicates the idea of of in Japanese. The Japanese usually transliterate the French word ami as アミ. But Ami's name is not 水のアミ in Japanese. That is why Ami's name does not mean friend of water. At most, the name sounds like a phrase that might mean friend of water. That is why it is thought of as a pun.

At any rate, ami is masculine in French. Amie is the feminine form of the word.

Even Usagi's full name in Japanese, 月野うさぎ, does not mean rabbit of the moon because 野 does not indicate of. Her name sounds like the phrase 月の兎, which does mean rabbit of the moon.

There are more explanations of the names in one of my articles:

http://antares7.absoludicrous.net/articles/npf/index.html

(Note: の does not always indicate the possessive particle that means of. Sometimes it is used to stand for a particular kanji. Usagi's full name may appear as つきのうさぎ, but we know that つきのうさぎ stands for 月野うさぎ.)

 

No, the kanji is 野 in the names. It means field.

There are many meanings of rei in Japanese. My article lists many of them.

Haruka is a Japanese that can be written as はるか. はるか can be a variant of 遥か, meaning distant.

みちる can be a Japanese name. It can also be a variant of 盈ちる, meaning to rise (what the tide does).

せつな can be a variant of 殺那, meaning moment or instant (not the adjective momentary by itself).

I already explained why 水野亜美 does not mean that.

The possessive particle の (no) that indicates of does not appear in their names. In all of those cases, the kanji is 野.

Or Yūgiō because the u is long, and the o is long.

I'm afraid that most sites out there (close to 95% of them) are wrong mainly because the authors don't take into consideration the meanings of the kanji. Moreover, the "true meanings" that you've given are mostly inaccurate.

Name written in Japanese: 地場衛

地: ground, earth
場: location, place
衛: defense, protection; can be used as a name

Name written in Japanese: 月野うさぎ

月: moon
野: field
うさぎ: used as a name; can be a variant of 兎, meaning rabbit

Name written in Japanese: ちびうさ

ちび: small person. I should point out that none of my Japanese dictionaries defines chibi as little or small. In every case, even in the Japanese-Japanese dictionaries, that word refers to a short or small person.
うさ: shortened form of うさぎ

That's a new one to me.

Name written in Japanese: 愛野美奈子

愛: love, affection
野: field
美: beauty, beautiful
奈 what (question word)
子: child

愛野 is a real surname, and 美奈子 is a real personal name.

That's a common mistranslation.

Name written in Japanese: 木野まこと

木: wood, tree
野: field
まこと: a name; can be a variant of 信, meaning truth.

Another common mistranslation. 土萠 does not mean glowing.

"Swinging Cloud"? That's new.

Name written in Japanese: 天王はるか

天: sky, heaven
王: king
はるか: a name; can be a variant of 遥か, meaning distant

Name written in Japanese: 冥王せつな

冥: dark
王: king
せつな: used as a name; can be a variant of 殺那, meaning moment, instant

Name written in Japanese: 星野光

星: star
野: field
光: light

The name has been misspelled as 星矢光 before. 矢 means arrow.

星野光 has a technical meaning: "light originating from distant stars which cannot be seen by the human eye."

name written in Japanese: 夜天光

夜: night, evening
天: sky, heaven
光: light

夜天光 has a technical meaning: "collective name for all the lights in the night sky."

Name written in Japanese: 大気光

大: large, big
気: mind, spirit
光: light

大気: atmosphere

大気光 has a technical meaning: "light reflecting off of molecules and atoms in the upper reaches of the atmosphere."

Hm? The latin word for love is amor. There is a mina in Latin, but it refers to a Greek weight of a hundred Attic drachmas. Another mina in Latin means smooth.

Well, it's popular, but I wouldn't trust the information there. I wasn't impressed by how that site claims that Hotaru's dream is to be a doctor. According to the Japanese sources, Hotaru's dream is to be a 看護婦, a nurse.

I really dislike that book. There is hardly a page in that book that does not have a dumb error.

The 亜 part of Ami's name can mean Asia, but that is not the only meaning. It can also mean subordinate.

 

Hence the "?", which signifies I was (and still am) unsure and not at all knowledgable of the subject.

That's some very interesting information. Welcome to Boards.jp.

 

Diaphanus -- you are my new hero. Seriously. Kanji readings were what we needed. Especially with the kanji for "no" in their names -- my Japanese teacher cleared that one up for me on the first day of class, because of the presence of that kanji in her name.

But yes. *_* Kanji readings and officialness much appreciated.