# Wakana



## tia_tula

Hi everyone,

long time not posting (first time in the Japanese section) I found this word on child´s drawing. I was wondering whether this is a girl´s name or whether it could mean also something like "little girl" or "little child"... (it might sound weird I know... but I´d like to translate explain the grandmother of this child (non-Japanese) who everyone in the drawing is... and this one is a kind of "key-piece"!
(These are my Saturday morning worries... je!)

thanks a lot for your help!
n.


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## Ocham

Wakana literally means  "young leaves", but sounds a bit poetic and old.
It is more commonly used in written form than in daily conversation.
Wakana is also used for girl's name.

I need more context to be more specific.


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## tia_tula

wow... young leaves...! Sounds so nice...

Thanks a lot for your answer. 
The context is as follows:
I have drawing where several people appear. The girl who made it wrote who these people are like: mama, papa, obaa-chan... There are two girls on the drawing: one of them is the one who drew it (she wrote her name on top). The other one has written the name Wakana. 
The girl who made the drawing just got to know that she has a little sister she has never met. I was wondering whether "wakana" could be a way of representing this sister she hasn´t met or just a friend of hers with the name Wakana. 
I lived some years in Japan but never heard that name... However, reading your message I assume is the second.

greetings!
n.


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## Hiro Sasaki

tia_tula said:


> wow... young leaves...! Sounds so nice...
> 
> Thanks a lot for your answer.
> The context is as follows:
> I have drawing where several people appear. The girl who made it wrote who these people are like: mama, papa, obaa-chan... There are two girls on the drawing: one of them is the one who drew it (she wrote her name on top). The other one has written the name Wakana.
> The girl who made the drawing just got to know that she has a little sister she has never met. I was wondering whether "wakana" could be a way of representing this sister she hasn´t met or just a friend of hers with the name Wakana.
> I lived some years in Japan but never heard that name... However, reading your message I assume is the second.
> 
> greetings!
> n.


 
Young leaves are "Wakaba".  "Wakana" are young herbs or herbs in 
spring. 

saludos

Hiro Sasaki


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## Aoyama

> Young leaves are "Wakaba". "Wakana" are young herbs or herbs in
> spring.


Not very important but still ... arguable. Wakana may also mean young leaf/ves, like _salada-na_ means a kind of `leafy` salad.
Here, being the name of a little girl, it is likely to be young leaf and not young herbs.
Wakaba (ba=ha, leaf) equally means young leaf but I think this form, often used for places, is seldom used as a first name.


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## Hiro Sasaki

Aoyama said:


> Not very important but still ... arguable. Wakana may also mean young leaf/ves, like _salada-na_ means a kind of `leafy` salad.
> Here, being the name of a little girl, it is likely to be young leaf and not young herbs.
> Wakaba (ba=ha, leaf) equally means young leaf but I think this form, often used for places, is seldom used as a first name.


 
Although less popular, Wakaba can be also a girl’s name.
Na is a edible herb and in some cases medicinal herbs.
We seldom eat young leaves of trees. Although cherry blossom leaves
for manjyu are edible.

Hiro Sasaki


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## Flaminius

Aoyama said:


> Here, being the name of a little girl, [Wakana] is likely to be young leaf and not young herbs.


(with my edit)
_Wakana_ as a girl's name may not mean  that the girl is like a young herb.



Hiro Sasaki said:


> Na is a edible herb and in some cases medicinal herbs.


My Older Japanese dictionary agrees with your explanation.  It is not without difficulty to find out what a young edible herb signifies as a girl's name.

Ancient anthologies from _Maňyōshū_ and on have several poetries about young women going into the field in spring to gather _wakana_.  I am not sure exactly what customs are involved in ancient herb gathering, but the name _Wakana_ seems to me a metaphor for these women by the parents who hoped their child would be like one of them.


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## Aoyama

> _Wakana_ as a girl's name may not mean that the girl is like a young herb.


That, obviously, goes without saying ...


> It is not without difficulty to find out what a young edible herb signifies as a girl's name.


Thank you for the explanation, though the meaning doesn't exactly clearly pop up ...


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## Hiro Sasaki

Now, in a urbanized society, less people go to fields to pick
up young herbs in spring. But, eating rice with seven kinds of herbs
on January 7th is widely praticed all over Japan. It is called 
Nanakuza gayu. Seven kinds of edible herbs packed are sold in 
supermarkets. The tradition which started one thousand years 
ago has been preserved.

I  ate nanakusa gayu on January 7 th.

Hiro Sasaki


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## tia_tula

Very interesting! 
Thanks a lot to you all of you!!


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