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Evidence-led referenceJapanese names, readings and kanji
japanesenameatlas.infoJapanese name reference
Canonical reference record
JMnedict-backedKANJIDIC2 character context
Japanese given name

Kana

カナ

Given-name classification varies across source records.

かなカナKana
Compare spellings
Reference coverage

Extended source depth

This reading group has a comparatively broad dictionary footprint across source-recorded spellings or records. The counts describe corpus coverage, not real-world popularity.

Distinct recorded spellings156

group-level written forms

Source spelling/reading rows157

records contributing to this reading group

Coverage levelExtended

based only on the imported source footprint

Pronunciation & romanization

How to read Kana

The kana reading is source-recorded. Romanization and mora segmentation are deterministic reading aids generated from that kana; pitch accent is not inferred.

Source readingかな

Normalized to hiragana for comparison.

Katakana formカナ

The same reading converted to katakana.

RomanizationKana

Macron-style display. Vowel-sequence form: Kana. Personal spelling and true vowel boundaries can differ.

Mora segmentationか · な

2 morae in this reading. Small ゃ/ゅ/ょ-type kana join the preceding mora.

Audio note: the play button uses Japanese text-to-speech provided by the visitor’s browser/device. It is a convenience preview, not a recorded native-speaker pronunciation or pitch-accent authority.

Meaning by written form

What can Kana mean?

A Japanese name can be written in more than one way, and its meaning can change with the kanji used. Rather than assigning one English meaning to “Kana”, this page explains each recorded spelling separately.

Kanji spellings10

character meanings available

Kana-only spellings2

no kanji meaning attached

InterpretationBy spelling

based on the exact written form

Kana-only spelling

カナ

This spelling is written only in kana. Because it contains no kanji, there is no kanji meaning to interpret here. The kana record the name’s sound; any personal or cultural meaning would depend on context not supplied by the dictionary.

Characters and loaded glosses
カKana characterナKana character
Kana-only spelling

かな

This spelling is written only in kana. Because it contains no kanji, there is no kanji meaning to interpret here. The kana record the name’s sound; any personal or cultural meaning would depend on context not supplied by the dictionary.

Characters and loaded glosses
かKana characterなKana character
Kanji spelling

伽南

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

伽名

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Kanji spelling

伽奈

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Kanji spelling

伽那

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

佳南

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

佳名

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Kanji spelling

佳夏

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

佳奈

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling

佳愛

These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.

Showing meaning context for the first 12 distinct written forms out of 157. The recorded-spellings section below retains the wider source set.

How to read these meanings

The English words shown here are dictionary meanings of individual kanji. They help explain what a spelling can suggest, but they are not a guaranteed translation of the full name and do not establish why a particular person was given that name.

Reading profile

How Kana is represented

These counts describe records in the imported name corpus. They are not a ranking of how popular a spelling is among people in Japan.

Recorded kana readings2

かな · カナ

Kanji-based spellings155

among the forms analyzed on this page

Kana characters2

in the primary dictionary reading

Morae2

small ゃ/ゅ/ょ-type kana combine with the preceding mora

Kana-only2

recorded spellings

1-kanji forms5

recorded spellings

2-kanji forms150

recorded spellings

JMnedict classification evidence

How this reading is classified in the source corpus

This separates dictionary classification from popularity. The same exact kana reading can be recorded as a given name, a surname, or both, and given-name records can carry male, female or unspecified source labels.

Primary reading recorded asGiven name + surname

かな in the imported JMnedict corpus

Given-name written forms156

157 source spelling/reading rows

Surname written forms56

56 source spelling/reading rows

Given-name labelsfemale 155 · unspecified 2

row counts carrying each JMnedict source label

Exact readingGiven-name evidenceGiven-name labelsSurname evidence
かなKana156157 source rowsfemale 155 · unspecified 2source rows · distinct forms: female 154 · unspecified 25656 source rows
かなKana00 source rows—source rows · distinct forms: —00 source rows

Classification boundary: male/female/unspecified are labels attached to imported JMnedict name records. They are not population shares, probabilities, identity claims, or evidence that a spelling is currently common in Japan. A source row can also be repeated across different written forms, so row counts and distinct-writing counts are shown separately.

Spelling anatomy

Corpus structure behind Kana

This section summarizes the exact source-recorded forms loaded for this reading group. Stroke and character-position statistics are descriptive corpus properties, not popularity or style scores.

Kanji forms with complete stroke data155

5–31 strokes observed span

Median total strokes17

among forms with complete KANJIDIC2 stroke data

All-kanji name-classified forms154

all component kanji loaded as jōyō/jinmeiyō classes

Other/unclassified kanji forms1

contains at least one character outside that loaded classification

Reading ambiguity

Can the same writing be read another way?

48 of 80 displayed written forms have more than one given-name reading somewhere in the active JMnedict corpus. This is dictionary-record ambiguity, not a prediction of how a particular person reads the name.

Written forms checked80

distinct spellings displayed on this page

Multiple recorded readings48

exact written forms with 2+ source readings

Single recorded reading31

within this active given-name corpus

Largest reading set52

distinct kana readings for one displayed writing

A reading shown without a link is still source-recorded, but its destination group does not yet meet the reference-depth standard used for the main library. Limited records are not promoted merely to create extra internal links.

Kanji role reference

How recurring characters function across Kana spellings

Position counts are calculated only from the distinct written forms analyzed for this page. KANJIDIC2 nanori are character-level name-reading references; they are not used here to decompose or assert the reading of a specific multi-kanji name.

KanjiCharacter glossesFormsFirstFinalInternalSoloStrokesKANJIDIC2 nanoriLoaded class
奈Nara, what?30030008—Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 4
菜vegetable, side dish, greens240240011ようJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 4
花flower18162007わJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 1
南south15015009なみ, は, みな, みまみJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2
名name, noted, distinguished15015006とJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 1
那what?15015007とも, やすJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8
佳excellent, beautiful, good12120008けい, よしJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8
夏summer12840010—Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2
可can, passable, approval990005よしJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 5
華splendor, flower, petal9800110わJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8
香incense, smell, perfume990009こ, こお, ひゃん, よしJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 4
凪lull, calm, (kokuji)808006—Jinmeiyō · KANJIDIC grade 9

Counts describe this source-recorded spelling set, not population use. A repeated kanji can contribute to more than one position role across different spellings.

Exact writing research map

Move from a spelling to its readings, characters and literal sequence context

These relationships are exact and source-backed. Whole-name readings shown in each card come from JMnedict within the current name class; exact-writing search can surface records from other name classes. Character links open KANJIDIC2-backed kanji pages. Sequence context means the same kanji string occurs contiguously in another recorded written form—it does not prove shared origin or meaning.

Exact written form

カナ

Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Kanaかな
Characters in order
カKanaナKana
Exact written form

かな

Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Kanaかな · this page
Characters in order
かKanaなKana

Showing research maps for the first 10 distinct written forms out of 157. Every detailed spelling card below still links to exact-writing search and its component kanji.

Corpus pattern

Kanji recurring across Kana spellings

Only characters appearing in at least two distinct analyzed spellings are shown here. Frequency describes this source-recorded spelling set, not real-world baby-name popularity.

Same reading, different writing

Explore written forms of Kana

157 source-recorded forms use the primary source reading かな. Other source readings can appear in this romanized group when the imported records converge on the same index form. Use Compare to inspect exact spellings side by side.

カナ

カナ · Kana

Katakana カナMorae 2Strokes —

This written form uses kana rather than kanji, so there are no character-level kanji glosses to combine.

かな

かな · Kana

Katakana カナMorae 2Strokes —

This written form uses kana rather than kanji, so there are no character-level kanji glosses to combine.

Showing the first 80 spelling/reading records out of 157 loaded records for this reading group. The group contains 156 distinct written spellings.

Spelling comparator

Compare Kana forms side by side

Each exact written spelling appears once in this table even when JMnedict records more than one reading for that writing. Stroke totals and character glosses come from KANJIDIC2 when all component kanji are available.

SpellingOne source readingCharacter-level glossesTotal strokesLoaded character class
カナカナKana-only spelling—Kana spelling
かなかなKana-only spelling—Kana spelling
伽南かな伽 — nursing, attending · 南 — south16All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
伽名かな伽 — nursing, attending · 名 — name, noted13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
伽奈かな伽 — nursing, attending · 奈 — Nara, what?15All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
伽菜かな伽 — nursing, attending · 菜 — vegetable, side dish18All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
伽那かな伽 — nursing, attending · 那 — what?14All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳南かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 南 — south17All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳名かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 名 — name, noted14All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳夏かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 夏 — summer18All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳奈かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 奈 — Nara, what?16All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳愛かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 愛 — love, affection21All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳樹かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 樹 — timber, trees24All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳永かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 永 — eternity, long13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳生かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 生 — life, genuine13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佳納かな佳 — excellent, beautiful · 納 — settlement, obtain18All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified

The comparison table shows the first 16 distinct written forms; the detailed cards above show up to 80 spelling/reading records.

What does Kana mean?

There is not necessarily one fixed English meaning. The reading identifies the spoken name; different written forms can use different kanji. Character glosses describe individual kanji and should not be treated as proof of the intention behind a particular person’s name.

Related readings

More names beginning with かな

Related by the opening kana of the dictionary reading. This is a deterministic browsing relationship, not a claim that the names share the same meaning.

Shared-kanji relationships

Other names sharing kanji with Kana

These links are calculated from exact characters appearing in source-recorded spellings on this page. Sharing a kanji does not mean two names have the same reading, origin, gender or intended meaning.

Given-name relationship

Kanako

佳南可名夏奈花菜華那

10 shared kanji · 136 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Kanae

佳南可名夏奈花菜華那

10 shared kanji · 113 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Kanami

佳南可名夏奈花菜華那

10 shared kanji · 94 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Wakana

佳南可名夏奈花菜華那

10 shared kanji · 55 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Nakako

佳南可名夏奈花菜華那

10 shared kanji · 30 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Naka

佳南可名夏奈花菜華那

10 shared kanji · 19 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Manaka

佳可名夏奈花菜華那

9 shared kanji · 64 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Karina

佳南可夏奈花菜華那

9 shared kanji · 38 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Kāna

佳南可名夏奈菜華那

9 shared kanji · 8 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Haruna

南名夏奈花菜華那

8 shared kanji · 109 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Hana

南名夏奈花菜華那

8 shared kanji · 69 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Given-name relationship

Kanna

南名夏奈花菜華那

8 shared kanji · 59 matching source-recorded spellings

Inspect name →
Continue research

Where to go next from Kana

Use literal reading, character and corpus relationships to continue without treating nearby records as automatically related.

Evidence on this page

What each source establishes

JMnedict establishes recorded written forms, readings and name classifications; where safely associated, this page can also show JMnedict-supplied trans_det source text without treating it as a whole-name meaning. KANJIDIC2 supplies character readings, nanori, stroke counts, grade classes and English character glosses. The Ministry of Justice remains the official reference for Japanese child-name character rules. The Agency for Cultural Affairs romanization guidance is the reference for generated Latin-script reading aids.

Source boundary

The spelling-frequency and structural counts on this page are calculated from imported JMnedict records. They are corpus counts, not population-frequency claims. KANJIDIC2 supplies the kanji metadata used in character and stroke comparisons.

Review sources →