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

Sakura

サクラ

Surname-classified records in JMnedict.

さくらサクラSakura
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 spellings14

group-level written forms

Source spelling/reading rows14

records contributing to this reading group

Coverage levelExtended

based only on the imported source footprint

Pronunciation & romanization

How to read Sakura

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さくら

Normalized to hiragana for comparison.

Katakana formサクラ

The same reading converted to katakana.

RomanizationSakura

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

Mora segmentationさ · く · ら

3 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 Sakura 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 “Sakura”, this page explains each recorded spelling separately.

Kanji spellings11

character meanings available

Kana-only spellings1

no kanji meaning attached

InterpretationBy spelling

based on the exact written form

Kana-only spelling

サクラ

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
サKana characterクKana characterラKana character
Kanji spelling

三倉

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

佐倉

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

佐蔵

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

佐鞍

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

作倉

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

作良

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

左倉

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

彩桜

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

桜

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

櫻

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

Showing meaning context for the first 12 distinct written forms out of 14. 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 Sakura 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

さくら · サクラ

Kanji-based spellings13

among the forms analyzed on this page

Kana characters3

in the primary dictionary reading

Morae3

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

Kana-only1

recorded spelling

1-kanji forms2

recorded spellings

2-kanji forms10

recorded spellings

3-kanji forms1

recorded spelling

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

さくら in the imported JMnedict corpus

Given-name written forms110

111 source spelling/reading rows

Surname written forms14

14 source spelling/reading rows

Given-name labelsfemale 107 · unspecified 4

row counts carrying each JMnedict source label

Exact readingGiven-name evidenceGiven-name labelsSurname evidence
さくらSakura110111 source rowsfemale 107 · unspecified 4source rows · distinct forms: female 107 · unspecified 41414 source rows
さくらSakura00 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 Sakura

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 data13

10–22 strokes observed span

Median total strokes17

among forms with complete KANJIDIC2 stroke data

All-kanji name-classified forms13

all component kanji loaded as jōyō/jinmeiyō classes

Other/unclassified kanji forms0

contains at least one character outside that loaded classification

Reading ambiguity

Can the same writing be read another way?

5 of 14 displayed written forms have more than one surname 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 checked14

distinct spellings displayed on this page

Multiple recorded readings5

exact written forms with 2+ source readings

Single recorded reading9

within this active surname corpus

Largest reading set4

distinct kana readings for one displayed writing

佐倉
2 source-recorded readings
Sakuraさくら · this pageSanokuraさのくら
作倉
2 source-recorded readings
SakukuraさくくらSakuraさくら · this page
桜
2 source-recorded readings
Sakuraさくら · this pageSakurasakiさくらさき

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 Sakura 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
倉godown, warehouse, storehouse6060010—Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 4
佐assistant, help440007すけJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 4
良good, pleasing, skilled202007じ, なが, まこと, よし +3Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 4
作make, production, prepare220007くり, さか, さっ, づくり +4Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2
桜cherry2010110さ, ろうJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 5
三three110003か, さ, さい, さえ +11Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 1
久long time, old story100103きゅ, わ, なが, ひさ +1Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 5
蔵storehouse, hide, own1010015くらし, くらん, くろう, さし +2Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 6
鞍saddle1010015—Jinmeiyō · KANJIDIC grade 9
左left110005そJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 1
彩coloring, paint, makeup1100011あや, さ, さえ, つやJōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8
櫻cherry1000121—Jinmeiyō · KANJIDIC grade 10

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

サクラ

Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Sakuraさくら · this page
Characters in order
サKanaクKanaラKana
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Sakuraさくら · this pageSanokuraさのくら
Other public forms containing the same contiguous sequence

The exact sequence 佐倉 appears contiguously inside these other source-recorded forms.

Showing research maps for the first 10 distinct written forms out of 14. Every detailed spelling card below still links to exact-writing search and its component kanji.

Corpus pattern

Kanji recurring across Sakura 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 Sakura

14 source-recorded forms use the primary source reading さくら. 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.

サクラ

サクラ · Sakura

Katakana サクラMorae 3Strokes —

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

桜

さくら · Sakura

Katakana サクラMorae 3Strokes 10

櫻

さくら · Sakura

Katakana サクラMorae 3Strokes 21
Same writing, other recorded reading

Exact written-form relationship inside the imported surname corpus.

Spelling comparator

Compare Sakura 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
サクラサクラKana-only spelling—Kana spelling
三倉さくら三 — three · 倉 — godown, warehouse13All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佐久良さくら佐 — assistant, help · 久 — long time, old story · 良 — good, pleasing17All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佐倉さくら佐 — assistant, help · 倉 — godown, warehouse17All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佐蔵さくら佐 — assistant, help · 蔵 — storehouse, hide22All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
佐鞍さくら佐 — assistant, help · 鞍 — saddle22All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
作倉さくら作 — make, production · 倉 — godown, warehouse17All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
作良さくら作 — make, production · 良 — good, pleasing14All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
左倉さくら左 — left · 倉 — godown, warehouse15All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
彩桜さくら彩 — coloring, paint · 桜 — cherry21All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
桜さくら桜 — cherry10All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
櫻さくら櫻 — cherry21All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
砂倉さくら砂 — sand · 倉 — godown, warehouse19All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified
紗倉さくら紗 — gauze, gossamer · 倉 — godown, warehouse20All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified

What does Sakura 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 surnames beginning with さく

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 surnames sharing kanji with Sakura

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.

Continue research

Where to go next from Sakura

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 →