#haikyuunamemeanings

[asterrrrion]

Of all names in manga, I like Haikyuu names the best because they manage to fit the characters while still staying actual not completely out of the blue names, so here are (some) of the name meanings :

日向　翔陽, Hinata Shōyō. 'Hi'日 means sun or day, while 'nata'向 means to face, defy, confront or tend towards to. Together, they're used to say "a sunny place", but it's interesting to think that Hinata with his jumps is also defying or being draw to the sun.

'Shō'翔 is the radical of 翔る、which means to soar, to fly, to run or to dash. It also used to be in 翔ぶ、but it's not used anymore (it has been replaced with another kanji which... You'll see lmao), which means to jump or to leap. 'yō'陽 is generally meant to say "sunlight" but only when it's pronounced 'hi', while when pronounced 'yō', it means the Yang, so the positive, or an open space. Hinata has a very sunny name :').

影山　飛雄、Kageyama Tobio. There's two kanjis for "shadow", both pronounced Kage, but the one used in his name is 影, which has slightly different meanings. It means shadow, silhouette, reflection, presence or star/moonlight. Silhouette is cool, since Kageyama has always been this great king that everyone knows of, presence is interesting ("as long as I'm here..."), and the moonlight one shows that he's a counterpart to Hinata's sunlight. 'Yama' 山 means mountain. Now, Kageyama is a very common Japanese last name, but together they form the mountains shadow, or a shadowy mountain... So the name has like "impressive great king" connotations.

'Tobi' 飛 is one of the most used kanjis in the whole manga. You know that kanji I talked about earlier, which used to mean to jump or leap ? Well, it was replaced by this one. So the first kanji in Hinata's first name was replaced by the first kanji in Kageyama's name in the verb "to jump, to leap, to fly". It's also the kanji that's used in Karasuno's banner, Fly. 飛ベ。'O'雄 is very common in boy's first names in Japan (it's also used in Natsuo from mha for example). It means masculine, leader, superiority or excellence. So it's pretty weighted since Kageyama is this representation of complete natural superiority and talent.

月島　京, Tsukishima Kei. The first kanji of his name, 'Tsuki' 月 (do not exchange with Yamaguchi's nickname Tsukki, which is written in hiragana and not in kanji) means moon or month. It's both a reference to his personality and to be Hinata's counterpart, and it was already discussed in the anime. 'Shima' 島 means island, and it might be a reference to his isolated nature ? Also interesting to note that it has a strong resemblance to 'Tori' 鳥, the kanji for bird.

'Kei' 京 is just one of the kanjis pronounced Kei, which apparently sucks for him cause his first worry of the moment was that everyone was gonna ask him how to write his name since it was a new year :'). Like, I'm not kidding, there's 16 kanjis pronounced Kei. This one, anyway, means capital or 10^16. It's the second kanji in Tōkyō (東京), and I have no idea why the Japanese have a word for ten thousand billion.

山口　忠, Yamaguchi Tadashi. Finally, my favourite ! Yama still means mountain, and 'Guchi' 口 means mouth. It was chosen because of Yamaguchi's arc, which was about greed and pride, to show his unending greed : he's ready to swallow a mountain basically.

'Tadashi' 忠 means loyalty, devotion, faithfulness. It was probably chosen as a sign of both his loyalty to Tsukishima and to Karasuno !

I'm gonna stop at those four for now, but if you want others just say so, i'll get right on it !

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Alright, update : started a series of those ! The other part for now is on the #haikyuunamemeanings tag

[asterrrrion]

Decided to finally finish up my Karasuno team name explanation, sorry for the wait ! For this post, we'll look at the supporting characters for the team.

The first one is Takeda Ittetsu, 武田　一鉄。

The first Kanji of his last name is 武 'Take', meaning warrior or military man. It's also a Kanji used in the word brave. It's interesting to see this Kanji used for this character, since he's one of the only ones who don't actually play any sports, ever, in the whole manga. But one of the points Furudate wanted to make with him is that his job for the team is also fighting for them. 田 'da' still means field, and is the same Kanji as in Tanaka, here pronounced da instead of ta.

The first of his first name is 一 'It(t)' - complicated Japanese pronunciation rule that you probably don't care about - and it means one, or the best at, the most something, as in number one [...]. The second, 鉄 'tetsu' which means iron. That's probably a representation of his will and his fighting spirit, as he is one united iron, in a way. Furudate really wanted to put his warrior mentality forward :')). Edit : Also !! Ittetsu, written 一徹 means obstinate !

Ukai Kenshin is next, written 烏養　繋心。

His name makes me laugh, but the first Kanji is 烏 'U', otherwise pronounced Karasu, which means crow or raven. The second is 養 'kai', and means to nurture, to bring up. So basically, the Ukais nurture the baby crows. It's also used in 養成 'Yousei', training.

The first Kanji of his last name is 繋 'Kei' here pronounced Ken, which means to tie, to tether, to connect. The second is 心 'shin', sometimes pronounced 'Kokoro'. You might think it means heart if you've watched enough animes, and it does, but the cultural meaning goes further. 心 is someone's core spirit and motivations etc. He connects the hearts of the team together to reach their goal, which is also interesting when you think he came in at a point of the story where the team was very divided and especially Nishinoya and Azumane, the complete opposites, couldn't get along.

Shimizu Kiyoko is next ! 清水 潔子 is her name written down.

清 'Shi' is to purify, to cleanse. It's also used in the word fresh. 水 'mizu' is water, and could be referring either to her eyes (blue and all) or to her quiet and calm nature etc. Both of them together mean spring water. It's a name that fits her personality and appearance.

潔 'Kiyo' is pure, righteous, and the Kanji 清 can also be pronounced Kiyo. However, this Kanji, when in the word 潔い 'Isagiyoi', means manly, sportsmanlike, brave, gracious, gallant. That double-meaning suits Kiyoko well, especially since she's also a very talented athlete which we don't know at the beginning of the story. 子 'ko' is child and as such is very common in Japanese names. We can also note that, like every other third years, Kiyoko is called by her first name.

Last is Yachi Hitoka, 谷地　仁花。

Her last name is composed of 谷 'Ya', the same as in Nishinoya, meaning valley. 地 'chi', like in Daichi, still means ground or earth. Both of them together are another word for swamp, which can both refer to Karasuno as a whole and her whole villager B arc. Like Daichi, she is a support of the team and the ground on which they grow.

'Hito' 仁 is benevolence, compassion, humanity. It can also simply mean human being. 花 'ka' is flower blooms or beauty. Her first name shows her kindness and the help she gives to the main characters. It also shows that that kindness is what helps her grow and blossom in life.

That's about it ! If you have any request for teams, put it in the comment, otherwise I'll just do whatever I want :').

[asterrrrion]

I'm on a roll apparently (it's positive feedback. Even if I don't respond I eat up reblogs and comments like a whale) ! So here enjoy a third part of Karasuno names explanation.

東峰　旭、Azumane Asahi. The first Kanji, 東 'Azuma', means Eastern Japan, the Eastern Provinces of Japan, or the East. 峰 'Ne', the second Kanji, is used to say peak, summit, top, or the back of a blade. It's a pretty fitting name since Asahi's the ace, and also very very tall. The East part, to make sense, has to conjugate itself with Nishinoya's name, so you'll see.

旭, 'Asahi', means morning sun or rising sun. Again, Nishinoya's name is needed, but in terms of volleyball movements, Asahi's jumps fit well into this perspective. (Also, jeez, Furudate loves his sky symbolism.)

西谷　夕、Nishinoya Yū, is a perfect foil to Asahi's name. 西 'Nishi' means the West, and 谷 'noya' is a valley. So while Azumane is the East Peak, Nishinoya is the West Valley. This was chosen both for their opposite stances at the beginning of the story, opposite personalities, and for their positions : the libero position requires to be low, literally, while the ace always has to jump.

And 夕 'Yū' means evening. I wondered why Yū was evening and Asahi morning sun, since it seems like their personalities are the opposite. But I think it has to do with their narrative arcs. Asahi literally rises during the story, he gains in confidence and power, while Nishinoya had already full trust in his abilities from the start. There's also still the movement of an ace versus a libero : going down versus up.

田中　龍之介、Tanaka Ryūnosuke. 田 'Ta', means field (generally rice field). It's used pretty much everywhere, both in names and in other kanjis as a radical. 中 'naka' means inside, and is also very common. Tanaka is an extremely common Japanese name, and it definitely has rural connotations, since it originally meant someone who spent a lot of time in the fields.

龍 'Ryū' means dragon, especially Chinese dragons rather than Occidental ones, and I suspect it to be the primary Kanji that inspired this name choice. Tanaka is aggressive, tries to be impressive and cool, and his playstyle has a lot of force behind it. 之 'no' is a grammar Kanji, and doesn't really mean anything on its own. It indicates possession. 介 'suke' means assistance, help, and is the radical of the verb 介する, to assist, to worry, to care. So the whole name says "Dragon's help", basically. Since Tanaka is a support character that doesn't get much shine despite playing a lot, and that he's always been friendly with the first years and especially Hinata, it makes sense.

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I'm not making the three other second years, because we know very little about them and it'd be useless to try to analyse their name with so little known about their personality.

Next part is the four non-player Karasuno characters !

[asterrrrion]

Saw that a lot of people liking my post about Haikyuu names, I'm glad you found it interesting! So I'm making another part. Choosing Karasuno names ! I'll probably make all of the team's names in other parts afterwards. (And then the other characters but uh... Seeing as there's a lot of characters in Haikyuu that'll take a while.)

So first of, Karasuno 烏野. So 烏 'Karasu' means crow or raven. I think most people who've watched the show know that, but just in case you were wondering why they were always represented as crows... Interesting to note that it looks remarkably similar to 鳥 'Tori', bird. 'No' 野 on the other hand means plains, field or rustic. So Karasuno literally means the Crow Field. Also, the school is kinda supposed to be in the middle of nowhere, so it makes sense.

澤村 大地, Sawamura Daichi. I had to search pretty far on internet because 'Sawa' 澤 wasn't anywhere in my dictionary and DeepL didn't give me much either, which is probably because it's a college level kanji. So it's a commonly used kanji in names but not anywhere else anymore, I'm pretty sure. It means "watery zone with plants and not very deep water", so basically a swamp. 村 'Mura' is a village or a small town. So 澤村 might be referring to a town based on swamps ? Again, Karasuno, concrete, etc.

大 'Dai' means big, great, the large part of [], etc. It's also used in The Great King for Oikawa. Also, don't mix it with Kitagawa Daiichi ! There's a double I and the kanjis have nothing to do with each other. 地 'Chi' means earth, ground or territory. Together, 大地 is a pretty common word used to say ground or the earth as in the solid, tangible earth. So this name was chosen for Daichi because of his role on the team : both emotionally and while playing (which we can see because he's good at defense and usually covers a big part of the field in it and is otherwise well-rounded) he's their support, the ground they stand on to play. It might seem obvious for a captain, but actually if you think about it all of the Haikyuu captains have very different styles of leadership. In that same idea, we can denote how every team member calls him by his first name, which is I think one of the only ever first name uses in Haikyuu outside of family.

This isn't the post to talk about it, but Karasuno, through Daichi, Ennoshita and Yamaguchi has a tradition of having not the strongest players as captains, for them to act as supports instead of leaders. This isn't the case in... Pretty much every other team except Inarizaki. Really interesting also to think about the differences between Oikawa's leadership and Ushijima's, considering both of their teams entirely resolve around them and they're the team leaders.

菅原 孝支, Sugawara Kōshi. 菅 'Suga' is a botanic family called in English sedge or cypercae. It has a lot of species but one of them was what was used in Egypt to make papyrus. Sedges are heavily associated with wet and tropical lands (also... swamps haha) and poor soils. They look basically like grass. It's a common Kanji in Japanese names. 原 'Hara' here pronounced wara for ease of pronunciation (the Japanese do that a lot) means field, plain, prairie, tundra, wilderness... You get it. The same kanji, pronounced 'Gen' means original or primary. Together, the two kanjis mean cedge field, but it's interesting to think about Suga, as a setter who was fired from the starter players for Kageyama, to have a Kanji that also means original in his name.

孝 'Kō' means filial piety, so it's pretty common in children names of course. It might also refer to his devotion and encouragement of the Karasuno team. 支 'Shi' means branch or support. This is of course referring to his role as a support to other players. Also !! 地支 'Chishi' so Chi and Shi together from Daichi and Kōshi, form the word for the Earthly Branches, an ancient chinese astronomy concept of division of the sky in twelve branches that formed many things in Chinese and Japanese society, including their zodiac and calendar system. No interpretation here, I just think it's fun.

I won't explain Asahi's name here, because it needs to be besides Nishinoya (their names are complementary), so that's the end of this post ! I thought about making other characters names here, like Narita and Kinoshita, but nobody remembers those guys actually exist and we know so little about them that it'd be useless.