For all you japanese speakers and anime lovers, what do the characters names mean?

I was just curious to know what the names mean. So far i know that:
Naruto: fish cake(i think)
Sakura: cherry blossom(i know for sure)
Ino: pig(pretty sure)
Orochimaru: Snake demon(something like that)
Jiraiya: Frog hermit(definite)

So if you know any of the other names meanings, including last names, i would really appreciate it especially what Sasuke means. Or Uchiha. Or anything.

First I should warn you that Japanese names can have MANY possible meanings, depending on how they are written. It's not the name itself that is important, but what characters it is written with.


Naruto: fish cake(i think)
Sakura: cherry blossom(i know for sure)
Ino: pig(pretty sure) ((actually, 'buta' is pig, hence Sakura always calling her Ino-buta=Ino-pig))


Orochimaru and Jiraiya (and Tsunade): These three are all characters from an old-style Japanese folk tale. Check out the Jiraiya's forehead protector thread for links to transcriptions of the story.

Going deeper into the meaning of Orochimaru's name, remember that the name of the sword he pukes up from the snake in his mouth? It's the Sword of Kusanagi (Kusanagi no Tsurugi). The Kusanagi no Tsurugi was cut out from the belly of the giant monster snake Orochi by an ancient Japanese hero.

Sasuke: not positive, but 'suke' as an ending is just a common ending to japanese boys' names, (Samanosuke, Sanosuke, Sasuke, Keisuke, Ryosuke are all common ones in anime that come to mind) that doesn't carry any meaning of its own per se, usually. Depending on the character used for the 'sa', Sasuke's name might not have any real meaning.

Sasuke may be a reference to Sarutobi Sasuke, who was a historical, real live ninja from about 400 years ago.

Uchiha, however, is a derivative of "uchiwa," which is a round paper fan. You can see the fan shaped crest of the Uchiha family on the back of his shirt. This should not be confused with the more traditional 'sensu' folding fan made of paper and strips of bamboo. (Temari uses a giant sensu.)

Itachi, very appropriately, means weasel.

Kakashi can either be translated as scarecrow or mosquito. Scarecrow is probably more accurate, though, remember the little charicature face on the back of Pakkun and the other nin-dog's vests? That's a little character that Japanese children like to draw called a scarecrow (kakashi) and in this case is a mark of belonging, like a crest stating that those dogs are Kakashi's summonings.

Umino Iruka: Umi (sea) no(of, general possessive) Iruka(dolphin), i.e. dolphin of the sea.

Not sure what Asuma means, but Sarutobi means 'flying monkey,' and thus Sarutobi as the Third's name is a reference to his monkey that he summons, King Enma.

Enma, actually, is the guardian or ruler of Hell in Japanese mythology. Sort of like Hades but not exactly.

Haku means 'white.' (Another word for white is shiroi.) It's appropriate considering his personality/purity, yes?

Zabuza means 'never cut twice,' and is a reference to that big freakin' sword.

Some of the names of the minor characters are humorous jokes. Tsunami, Inari's mom, is a giant wave that has sometimes wreaked great damage on the Japanese coast. Inari is a type of fried tofu. Waraji and Zouri, the two inept henchmen of Gatou sent to kidnap Inari and his mom, are two types of traditional Japanese footwear.

wow thanks for all the info on stuff, its cool to know what the names mean, some stuff will make more sense if you know it...

by the way, what does chouji mean?

Not sure what Chouji means, actually.

Hanabi: I haven't seen the characters for her name, but 'hana' is flower, and one possible character for 'bi' is beauty, so Hanabi could be beautiful flower.

Kiba is 'fang.'

Kurenai, Hinata and Shino: not sure.

well, you are right on a couple of them -

jiraya and orochimaru are both characters in kabuki - traditional japanese theater. orochimaru was one of jiraya's followers that turned against him.

ino does not mean pig. buta is pig, so Sakura calls ino "inobu" she is just calling her ino-pig. however, one of the kanji that ino can be written as means "prayer"

temari - are traditional string balls (go to temari.com, and you'll get the idea)

ten ten - are the marks that are seen on hiragana and katakana that changes the sound of the word. ex. on a "te" a ten ten mark would turn it into a "de". ten ten marks look kind like quotation marks. ( " )

gai - means harm, or damage

sarutobi ( third hokage) - saru means monkey. intereting though, tobisaru means to fly away.

iruka - dolphin

haku - is a reading of the kanji "white"

thats all i can think of for now.

You are right, InnerSakuraChan, about Jiraiya and Orochimaru, or rather we both are. :-)

The kabuki play was actually adapted from the original fairytale, and the play itself has been very sucessful.

Great site for this sort of question

Really worth checking out, one of my fav Naruto sites.
She not only translates the names, but also explains Japanese cultural traits and comments on the meaning of the lines of the characters, and the specific words they use and why.
Besides that, my fav trick is typing the Japanese name/word in the search box and write Japanese word meaning. You will come up with great stuff, if you have patience. You have to listen well and figure out how the word is written in romanji (western characters)

As for Hanabi it's fire flower in a literal translation. Hana=flower bi=fire. I don't know the exact rule for that but some words change sound when put after the other. Hi (fire) is one of those. So you have Kitsunebi (foxfire!!!) Shibito(corpse) Shi (death) bito =hito (person) Megami (feminine god), Kami (god) becomes gami.and so on One I like is tegami. kami can also mean paper so te (hand) kami = tegami =letter (as in mailed letter)... how did I guess? don't ask. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Anyhow, Hanabi actually means fireworks... makes sense for me to call fireworks fireflower, but that's just me.Except for Neji, which amazingly enough means screw (well, he *is* kinda screwed) all those people's names have to do with Sun (hi) Hinata, Hiazashi and so on.
Another thing, there's a kanji for hi(fire) and another for hi (sun) so, you basically need to know how it is written in kanji to figure out the exact meaning.
Yeah, I know, it is kinda mind-blowing, that language.
Disclaimer: I don't know Japanese. There's no guarantee that it's true. So feel free to correct me without flaming.

thanks alot very cool site

Thanks for the correction as to hanabi meaning fireworks.

Oh, and Neji is a screw(ed) person....hahahaha, that's funny and almost as appropriate as Itachi meaning weasel.

NP at all, you, too.
I think it's a very interesting topic, because for what I've notice so far lots of anime characters have significative names.
Other thing that I think is very cool is the way they treat each other, and themselves. You use a different I according to you age, sex, if you want to look *bad*, etc And several forms of you from the most deferrential to the most insulting, which can add lots to the dramaticity of the scene.
I was commenting that the other day, I just figured out how to say give up in a fight, kiken shiro.
Kiken apparently is used in Martial Arts to characterize an opponent who loses without even start fighting.
But the thing is that, one of the first things Neji does is to call Hinata, Hinata-sama, and tell her, in the same breath to kiken shiro. Well this form of the verb is imperative, but more of like, a bossing around imperative. And you'd never talk that way to a person you call sama, which is a term of extreme respect. So, that goes to show, IMO, right of the bat, the conflict inside Neji. He has to respect Hinata, but he actually thinks she isn't worth anything, so he feels free to boss her around. I think this contrast in the language is a great element in showing that we're not looking at a simple exam match.

I deleted that double post for you :-D

Yeah, japanese forms of self-address are really interesting.

'Boku' for younger, more polite boys (though I've heard girls use it too), 'ore' for more punk-ish, hotheadded guys, 'atashi' for polite girls, 'watashi' as the formal gender-neutral form. You can basically tell what a person thinks of themselves by how they refer to themselves.

I love how Zabuza calls himself ore-sama, SUCH an attitude. Ego-much!

Sessha is the antiquated samurai form of self-address, in Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin used it, and I've sometimes heard it translated to 'this unworthy one.' Any clue why Pakkun, of all people(well, close enough) in Naruto, uses it?

I wonder why all the names are based on items instead of like real names and stuff. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

wow, thats alot of info, how do guys know all of this, do u take japanese classes or are u japanese? i need to take some classes instead of learinig japanese of anime

haha yay i actually started an interesting topic
i love your avatar and sig uzumaki naruto
Oh and i have a question to ask. When japanese call someone for instance "Sakura" do they think they are calling that person "Sakura" in their mind or "Cherry Blossom" in their mind, if you get what im asking?

doesnt hatake mean something like a dried up field? as in hatake kakashi being a scarecrow in a barren field
which could in itself symbolize how he is perhaps a defender who failed to protect his precious people (aka the dead friends that he references occasionally)

from what ive read on sites, they say it means field, i dunno about baron field though

Naruto does mean Fish Cakes, but, if you break down the word, it means "When I become" Naru is a verb meaning to become, and when you add to is changes it to 'when' i become... ooo I just love that, it works so well with the story... but I still like that it also means fish cakes... hehe

chouji is well cho is butterfly.
akamaru: aka meaning red.
anko or mitarashi: is supposed to be sweet bean. something like that.

Naruto can also mean maelstrom.
Uzumaki can mean whirlpool or eddy.

Quote:

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Originally posted by: lasaire
I deleted that double post for you :-D

Yeah, japanese forms of self-address are really interesting.

'Boku' for younger, more polite boys (though I've heard girls use it too), 'ore' for more punk-ish, hotheadded guys, 'atashi' for polite girls, 'watashi' as the formal gender-neutral form. You can basically tell what a person thinks of themselves by how they refer to themselves.

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TY...
Well, boku... I've read it's the poetic form for I. As for girls using it, check that series Yami to boushi to hon to tabibito or something like and you will see what kind of girl uses it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]