# Kanji Used for Names



## kyn

How many Kanji are used today in Japan for personal names? I read on Wikipedia that before September 2004 there were 2232, how about now?

In the list of Kanji for personal names on Wikipedia, the Kanji 俊 is not listed. Does that mean it's not used for names in Japan?
When I look up a Kanji in my e-dictionary, there's a entry called "名付け" with different pronunciations for the Kanji. In the case of "俊", they are: すぐる、たかし、とし、まさり、まさる、よし. I think these are the readings of "俊" when it's used for names. Is that correct?


----------



## Flaminius

Kanjis that can be used in the Japanese birth registration consist of 1 945 jōyō kanjis (revised in 1981) and 983 jimmēyō kanjis (revised in 2004).  This amounts to 2 928 kanjis valid for naming a child.

俊 is not found in the jimmēyō list because it is a jōyō kanji.


> there's a entry called "名付け" with different pronunciations for the Kanji. In the case of "俊", they are: すぐる、たかし、とし、まさり、まさる、よし.


They are the most common readings attributed for 俊 when it is used as part of a given name.  See here for a list of which kanjis are most frequently used for name components.

By the way, is "kyn" the Vietnamese orthography for 俊 (with the Vietnamese pronunciation)?


----------



## kyn

Thanks for your answer.
俊 is my Vietnamese name translated into Kanji. This can be done because back in the old days, Chinese characters were used in Vietnam too. But we have adapted it by romanizing almost all of them, so now many Vietnamese words have similar reading and meaning as their Chinese counterparts.
As for "kyn", it's just a nickname, not my real name


----------



## xiaolijie

I know someone called "Satoshi", written with this character 俊.


----------



## kyn

If 俊 is not in the jimmēyō kanjis list, it means that Japanese don't use it for names, right? 
Then why is there 名付け (like Flaminius said, common readings when it's used as part of a name)? 
And why is there a person's name with this Kanji like xiaolijie said?


----------



## xiaolijie

kyn said:


> If 俊 is not in the jimmēyō kanjis list, it means that Japanese don't use it for names, right?
> Then why is there 名付け (like Flaminius said, common readings when it's used as part of a name)?
> And why is there a person's name with this Kanji like xiaolijie said?


No, it means the opposite! since 俊 is already on the more commonly-used word list, _jōyō_, it doesn't need to be repeated in the other word list, _jinmeiyō_.


----------



## kyn

OK, now I got it.
One more question: if 俊 stands alone (as a name), how should it be read?


----------



## Captain Haddock

kyn said:


> OK, now I got it.
> One more question: if 俊 stands alone (as a name), how should it be read?



My kanji dictionary says this kanji can be pronounced Toshi, Satoshi, Suguru, and Takashi as names (probably in that order of frequency).


----------



## kaori

Hi,I think "Shun" is the most popular if it stads alone. If it consists of 2 Kanji usualy "Toshi-" or "-Toshi" is common. But there is a popular football player whose name is *中村*俊輔(Nakamura Shunsuke).


----------

