Why the kanji for name has the night in it (名)

The kanji for name is 名 (na), the first half of 名前 (namae), name. It’s built from 夕, evening, and 口, a mouth, and the classic explanation is a scene after dark: nobody can see who you are, so you call out your name.

What the kanji say

夕 (yuu) is evening. It began as a crescent moon and is a close cousin of 月 (tsuki), the moon. You’ll see it in 夕方 (yuugata), early evening, and 夕日 (yuuhi), the setting sun.

口 (kuchi) is a mouth. It also means an opening, so an exit is 出口 (deguchi), a “going-out mouth”.

Put the evening on top of the mouth and you get 名: a voice in the dusk, saying who it is.

Where the story comes from

This isn’t a modern memory trick. It’s the explanation in the Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE: “夕 means dark. In the dark, people can’t see each other, so they name themselves with their mouths.” The story is nearly 2,000 years old.

Not everyone is sure it’s the whole truth. One proposal is that in the oldest writing, 口 alone stood for both “mouth” and “name”, and 夕 was added later mainly as a sound hint, to tell the two words apart. It’s only a proposal, though. The night-time story is still the standard explanation, and a good one to keep.

How to use it

• お名前は？

  Onamae wa?

  What's your name?

• お名前を教えていただけますか。

  Onamae o oshiete itadakemasu ka.

  May I have your name, please?

• ここに名前を書いてください。

  Koko ni namae o kaite kudasai.

  Please write your name here.

• 何名様ですか。

  Nanmei-sama desu ka.

  How many in your party? (at a restaurant)

• Use お名前 (onamae) for other people’s names and plain 名前 for your own. To give your name, most people simply say it with です: アナです (Ana desu), “I’m Ana.”
• 名前 can mean your full name or just your given name. Your family name is 名字 (myouji), and forms ask for your 氏名 (shimei), your full name.
• 名 (mei) also counts people in polite speech. Restaurant staff ask 何名様ですか, and you can answer 二人です (futari desu), “two of us”.
• 名 can mean famous, too: 有名 (yuumei), famous, and 名物 (meibutsu), the local speciality that every Japanese town seems to have.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

A path at dusk, the moon (夕) just up. Someone walks toward you, too dark to see, and a mouth (口) calls out, “It’s me, Ken.” That’s 名: the name you say when nobody can see you.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Sources

• Wiktionary: 名
• Zdic: 名 (with the Shuowen Jiezi entry)

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.