| Pronunciation | han-nah-koh |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Japanese |
| Meaning | Different meanings depending on the kanji used |
| Region of origin | Japan |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Hana Kanako |
Hanako is a female Japanese given name. The name can have different meanings, one of them being 花子, meaning "flower girl", and another being 華子 (華 is a kanji of many uses - 'splendor', 'flower', 'petal', 'shine', 'luster', 'ostentatious', 'showy'. 'ko' is the second kanji, meaning 'girl (child)').
It is often seen as an archetypal name for females.[1] It was a popular name for female elephants in Japan imported in the late 1940s and early 1950s; the first part of the name, Hana, could be taken as reference to an elephant's nose.[2]
- ^ Takeda, Hiroko (2004-09-23). The Political Economy of Reproduction in Japan: Between Nation-State and Everyday Life. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415321907.
- ^ Itoh, Mayumi (2010), "Zoos in Japan in the Early Postwar Years", Japanese Wartime Zoo Policy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, p. 167, doi:10.1057/9780230117440_9, ISBN 978-1-349-29183-0, retrieved 2025-02-22