Japanese Female Names 



These forms will serve for illustration ; but 

 there are others. Geimyo are written, as a gen- 

 eral rule, with only two Chinese characters, and 

 are pronounced as three or as four syllables. 

 Geimyo of five syllables are occasionally to be 

 met with ; geimyo of only two syllables are rare 

 - at least among names of dancing girls. And 

 these professional appellations have seldom any 

 moral meaning: they signify things relating to 

 longevity, wealth, pleasure, youth, or luck, 

 perhaps especially to luck. 



Of late years it became a fashion among cer- 

 tain classes of geisha in the capital to assume real 

 names with the genteel suffix Ko, and even aris- 

 tocratic yobina. In 1889 some of the T6ky5 

 newspapers demanded legislative measures to 

 check the practice. This incident would seem to 

 afford proof of public feeling upon the subject. 



