Hiroko, Sachiko, Yo ¯ko: The Phenomenon of Female “-ko” Names in Modern Japan 23 1 Introduction W hen Ono Yo ¯ko 2 ( 小野 洋子 ), a Japanese-American artist, musician, songwriter, and peace activist, known worldwide as Yoko Ono, was born in 1933, she was giv- en a name ending in -ko ( 子 ; ‘child, girl’), a type of name that was quite popular at the time. In fact, it was so popular that four out of five baby girls born received such name (see Graph 1 in Section 5). According to the name ranking by the Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company, which has been compiling annual lists of the most popular names since 1912, the name 洋子 (read either Hiroko or Yo ¯ko) ranked fourth in 1933, and all top ten female names ended in 子 : 和子 Kazuko, 3 幸子 Yukiko/Sachiko, 節子 Setsuko, 洋子 Hiroko/Yo ¯ko, 弘子 Hiroko, 久子 Hisako, 文子 Fumiko, 美代子 Miyoko, 美智子 Michiko and 信子 Nobuko. This type of name is typically three, less frequently two-mora long, consisting of two or three Chinese characters (kanji), the last of which is 子 ( 〇子 , 〇〇子 ). This name Hiroko, Sachiko, Yo ¯ ko: The Phenomenon of Female “-ko” Names in Modern Japan 1 Ivona Barešová Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic The trend of “-ko” names, i.e. female names consisting of one or two Chinese characters to which 子 (ko), meaning “child/girl,” is attached, is one of the most striking phenomena in the history of modern Japanese names. This article traces the popularity of the “-ko” name pattern over time, discusses the situa- tion in the last decades of the nineteenth century that gave rise to this phe- nomenon as well as the circumstances behind its decline a hundred years later, while also considering the position of this once-prominent name pattern among recently bestowed names. 1 This paper draws on my earlier research concerning this phenomenon (Barešová 2017, 2018) and a lecture deliv- ered at Gakushuin Women’s College Institute of International Studies on December 4, 2019. 2 Japanese words are transcribed using the Hepburn system of Romanization, which follows English pronunciation. Long vowels are transcribed using the macron. 3 The phonological forms listed with the graphic forms are usually the most common, not the only forms possible. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by GLIM IR Institution Repository