Since it's come up, have a character kanji infopost.
Kurosawa Hazō -> Gōketsu Hazō
黒澤 範蔵 -> 豪傑 範蔵
Hazō was named by the early player
@Neo-Chan.
@Neo-Chan, if you remember how you came up with the name, please let us know.
"Kurosawa" means "black swamp", made known in the West by the famous film-maker Akira Kurosawa. "Hazō" isn't a real name, so we've used a variant of the kanji for "Hanzō", the historical ninja and his assumed inspiration. "Hanzō" is a traditional Kurosawa Clan name with kanji meaning "example/model storehouse".
"Gōketsu" was made up by Jiraiya, and is written with kanji meaning "manly + best". It is a reference to the original work from which he is an expy in canon. To quote a Japanese dictionary:
Gōketsu (豪傑)
- A person with guts, excelling in wit and valour far beyond ordinary people.
- A bold-spirited person who does not concern himself with trivial things. Alternatively, an eccentric person.
Related:
Gōketsu warai (豪傑笑い) A loud, boisterous laugh
Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語) The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya
Mori Keiko -> Gōketsu Keiko -> Nara Kei
守 恵子 -> 豪傑 恵子 -> 奈良 恵
Like Hazō, Kei was named by the players, but unfortunately everything else is lost in the mists of time.
"Mori" means "protect", while "Keiko" means "blessed child". Both are common Japanese names, although 森 Mori, meaning "forest", is even more common. "Nara" doesn't mean anything in particular, being a canon reference to a Japanese city known for its deer worship (Kishimoto is not subtle; "shika" also means "deer"). Kei got rid of the "child" ending (very common in Japanese women's names) in an immature attempt to be more mature, and it stuck. It is currently her legal name.
Wakahisa Noburi -> Gōketsu Noburi
若久 登 -> 豪傑 登
Like Hazō, Noburi was named by the players, but unfortunately everything else is lost in the mists of time.
"Wakahisa" is an obscure Japanese place name written as "youth + long time/eternity". "Noburi" is not a real name, so we've used the kanji for the nearest plausible Japanese name, "Noboru" (meaning "climb/ascend"). The priest bit his tongue during Noburi's naming ceremony, and having a weird name in no way helped Noburi's Academy bullying problems.
Inoue Mariko -> Inoue Mari -> Gōketsu Mari
井上 麻[里子 -> 井上 麻里 -> 豪傑 麻里
"Inoue", meaning "on top of the well", is an extremely common Japanese surname with transparent etymological origins. "Mariko", "hemp + village + child", is a common, unremarkable name of the kind a peasant might give her daughter. Like Kei, Mari ditched the "child" ending.
Kagome -> Gōketsu Kagome
籠女 -> 豪傑 籠女
"Kagome" is a Japanese female given name written as "cage + woman". Both IC and OOC, it is a mystery: "Kagome kagome" is a popular Japanese children's game with cryptic lyrics that vary by region. As a dictionary word, it also refers to a
basket weave pattern.
Ishihara Akane -> Gōketsu Akane
石原 茜 - > 豪傑 茜
"Ishihara" is a common Japanese surname meaning "stony field". "Akane" is also common, and means "madder", as in the plant. As a point of trivia, "akane" is also a homophone for "red roots", and madder roots were historically used as a source of red pigment for dyes.
Snowflake -> Gōketsu Snowflake
雪片 -> 豪傑 雪華
As Kei's original list of shadow clone identifiers was partially drawn from natural phenomena, it used the standard term for snowflakes, written as "snow fragment". Later, in the process of defining her own identity, Snowflake decided to instead use kanji that read as "snow flower", a poetic term for the same phenomenon (and also a real Japanese name, read "Yukihana" or "Sekka").
Yamamoto Haru -> Gōketsu Haru
山本 春 -> 豪傑 春
"Yamamoto" is a common Japanese surname meaning "base of the mountain". "Haru" is a reasonably common name meaning "spring", as in the season, although it is more commonly used as a female name.
Gasai Yuno -> Kannagi Yuno -> Gōketsu Yuno
我妻 由乃 -> 神薙 由乃 -> 豪傑 由乃
Yuno's birth name comes from her original canon in Future Diary. "Gasai" means "my wife", and is presumably a reference to Yuno's obsession with being by the protagonist's side. "Yuno" is written with the kanji for "reason + of", which means nothing in particular, being a homophone for Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage. "Kannagi" is an uncommon surname; as a word, it means "oracle", but Isan's weaponmaster clan uses kanji meaning "god + mow down [enemies]"--this is the "nagi" of "naginata".
Satsuriku no Watagiri -> Satsuko
殺戮の腸切り-> 殺子
Satsuko's full name means "Massacre Gutcleaver". Yuno took the first kanji ("kill") and added the "child" ending to turn it into a girl's name (in a rather ironic juxtaposition to Kei and Mari's choices, now I think of it). I later learned that Satsuko, with that spelling, is a real Japanese name. Apparently, there are enough parents out there willing to name their little girl "murder child" for it to make it into the dictionary.
Mori Ami
守 編
"Ami" means "knit/compile/edit", and reflects her parents' Mori affinity for systems and data management.
Note: Most Japanese names can be spelled with a variety of kanji, and sometimes Japanese parents will straight up combine kanji they like with names they like even if there's no historical, etymological, or traditional grounding for it. Likewise, a name having a dictionary meaning is no guarantee that it will be spelled with the corresponding kanji. Some names are not written with kanji at all--many characters in Naruto canon, including most of the younger generation, write their names with katakana, presumably to make life easier for younger readers, even though they have obvious kanji (for example, "Hyūga" and "Hinata" are normally written the same way, meaning "place where the sun shines".) As an anecdote, I once met a Japanese man named Shinobu who was fed up with foreigners thinking it was "shinobi", and resolved to name his eventual child Kiara precisely
because it didn't mean anything.
