Japan's Most Popular Baby Names for 2023 Revealed
"Ren" and "Himari" are 2023's most popular names for babies born in Japan, according to a survey by Tamahiyo, a brand for babies and new mothers.
Tamahiyo looked at 280,000 names given to Japanese babies born between January 1 and September 27.
They looked at all the kanji — the Japanese characters that make up a name — to see which were most commonly used.
"Ren," whose Japanese character means "lotus," is often in Tamahiyo's top 10 most popular baby names for boys.
Last year it was the fifth most popular name, but before that it was the most popular name every year from 2018 to 2021.
For girls, "Himari" has been the most popular name for the last eight years, according to the Tamahiyo survey. The Japanese characters for the name, which mean "sun" and "hollyhock," a type of flower, can also be read as "Hinata."
The girls' name "Tsumugi," as well as the boys' names "Minato" and "Sou," increased in popularity this year. This might be because they're the names of characters in the popular Japanese television series Silent, which aired in late 2022.
"Minato," while not the top boys' name, was still so popular that it made the top 10 list twice, with two different combinations of Japanese characters.
The name "Sui" also saw an increase in popularity in 2023. It's a girls' name that uses a Japanese character that means "green." It was the 16th most popular girls' name last year, but it came third this year.
