Japanese Female Names 109 



them. A knowledge of spoken Japanese can 

 help you very little indeed. A knowledge of 

 Chinese also is indispensable. The meaning of a 

 name written in kana only, in the Japanese 

 characters, cannot be, in most cases, even 

 guessed at. The Chinese characters of the name 

 can alone explain it. The Japanese essayist, al- 

 ready referred to, found himself obliged to throw 

 out no less than thirty-six names out of a list 

 of two hundred and thirteen, simply because 

 these thirty-six, having been recorded only in 

 kana, could not be interpreted. Kana give only 

 the pronunciation ; and the pronunciation of a 

 woman's name explains nothing in a majority of 

 cases. Transliterated into Romaji, a yobina may 

 signify two, three, or even half-a-dozen different 

 things. One of the names thrown out of the 

 list was Banka. Banha might signify "Mint" 

 (the plant) , which would be a pretty name ; but 

 it might also mean " Evening-haze." Yuka, 

 another rejected name, might be an abbreviation 

 of Yukabutsu, " precious " ; but it might just as 

 well mean " a floor." Nochi, a third example, 

 might signify " future " ; yet it could also mean 

 " a descendant," and various other things. My 

 reader will be able to find many other homonyms 



