I was showing a couple of things to a friend who is starting to learn Japanese, and upon filling a form, he told me that there were katakana when he needed to input his name. I read them out loud for him, and realized that it read the standard default name in forms. Is just a coincidence ?
[Edit] : expectedly, the consensus is that it is not related. So if you want a mnemonic to remember the John Smith in japanese, there you go \^\^
[Edit 2] : turns out my handwriting for [タ](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%82%BF#/media/File:Katakana_letter_Ta.svg) was incorrect because I was writing [夕 (ゆう)](https://jisho.org/search/%E5%A4%95%20%23kanji)
19 comments
The name Taro is used as a standard default name because it’s just a common generic name, like “John Smith.” Also, the female version is Hanako.
It has nothing to do with the kanji for name whatsoever.
I hadn’t ever thought of that, that’s hilarious if that’s the 由来 for it
How many katakana does 亂 possess?
Coincidence
It would be one character short, because Tarō is rendered as たろう in kana. Still, amusing nonetheless…
Katakana is derived from Kanji, so there is very possibly a direct link but it may be a couple steps removed to be the 1:1 derivative.
That’s a very funny observation but it also definitely has nothing to do with it.
It’s just the most ordinary/unremarkable name, typically full name 山田太郎. I doubt it’s linked
>[Edit 2] : turns out my handwriting for タ was incorrect because I was writing 夕 (ゆう)
I have never seen handwriting on my computer.
More to the actual point though is that some fonts don’t strongly distingish these sets 口，ロ，囗 (In order, kuchi, ro, kunigamae) 工. エ, , etc. The best ones obviously do better even at the cost of skewing how the characters look when actually written
Like many other have said, it’s just a typical name.
More context though, it means first son. Jiro means second son. Saburo is third son. This is called haikomei, old fashioned but it was naming your son’s by the order they were born in.
That’s how I memorised that kanji, lol. It’s so convenient.
Tarou was originally a generic noun meaning “the son and heir”.
Heres also a joke someone told me back then: 君=コ、ロ、ナ= Corona
No one seems to have mentioned this, so just to add, Tarō is just traditionally a name/suffix for first born sons, followed by Jirō for number 2 and Saburō for number 3. So it has strong “any male name” energy.
lol, nice take.
名 is derived from 夕 and 口. From the Outlier kanji dictionary:
> depicts a mouth (口) and a moon (夕), indicating the original meaning “to call out one’s name at night to identify oneself; name.”
taro, such as ichitaro ect was used often to indicate what stats you were. first born. second born ect.
They’re not related at all, but I have never thought of it like this before 👀 What an amazing coincidence 😂
For what it’s worth your handwriting for katakana タ was probably right: [https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%82%BF%E3%80%80%E6%9B%B8%E3%81%8D%E6%96%B9&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%82%BF%E3%80%80%E6%9B%B8%E3%81%8D%E6%96%B9&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch)
You can write it differently from the kanji 夕 but this way seems to be more common. People even seem to have differing opinions on how they should be different: [https://www.google.com/search?q=タ%E3%80%80夕%E3%80%80書き方%E3%80%80どう違う&tbm=isch](https://www.google.com/search?q=タ%E3%80%80夕%E3%80%80書き方%E3%80%80どう違う&tbm=isch)
Short answer no, but nice coincidence hehe