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 Tokyo 

 newspapers demanded legislative measures to 

 check the practice. This incident would seem to 

 afford proof of public feeling upon the subject. 



