Should Shiny Names Be Banned?
Plus Cardi B's new baby name 🌸
Big name news from Japan this week: legislation has been passed to limit parents giving their children kirakira — “shiny” or “sparkly” — names.
Kirakira names are a trend of recent decades, in which the characters used to spell the name have a non-traditional pronunciation that may be impossible to guess. It’s hard to find an equivalent in English, but Nancy used the example of a person named Cindy, pronounced “Sidney”. From now on, Japanese parents will have to declare the pronunciation of their child’s name, and registrars will be able to reject it in extreme cases.
They can also include names from foreign languages, like the English word Light; from pop culture, like Pikachu; and with a controversial meaning like Akuma, meaning “devil”.
Do you think there should be legal limits on what parents can name their children? Tell us in the comments ⬇️
Blossom is back
Blossom is another name that might not pass in Japan* — but which might be about to trend in the US. Cardi B revealed last week that her third child with Offset is named Blossom, as previously hinted with a partly-hidden bracelet and some strategic 🌸 emojis.
What’s interesting here is that Cardi is going against a common trend in sibling names. Often (in naming as in other aspects of parenting!), parents start off fairly traditionally with the first, but by child number 2, 3, and beyond, they become more adventurous and true to themselves.
But Cardi B went all in with her oldest daughter’s name, Kulture Kiari. It shook the name community in 2018: an original word name! Using dad’s name for his daughter’s middle! Both were new to the charts, but helped to fuel the trend for meaningful modern word names, and unisex -ari endings.
Their son’s name, Wave Set, also came out of nowhere in 2021 — but at least used the original spelling of the word. But Blossom is an established word name, though not exactly common. It peaked in the 1920s, and is already making a hundred-year-rule comeback in the States. Even more so in England and Wales, where it is in the Top 300. Thanks to Cardi, I’m calling it for one of the fastest-rising names of 2025.
*Though there are genuine Japanese names with blossom in their meaning, such as Saki and Asaki, as you’d expect from a country where cherry blossom is so beloved.
Did you miss?
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Sirianni: a perfect choice for a baseball-loving family?!
New on the database: a totally sweet boy name from Greenland
Is this the most divisive question in baby naming?
For the most part, I am all for nicknames as first names, especially if you don't like the full name (or even if you don't love it). It totally makes sense to choose the the name you're going to call them by!u cousin is just Becky because her mom loved that name, but didn't like Rebecca. Totally reasonable to me. Unless I want to use the full name interchangeably with the nickname, I'd more likely just go with the nickname! Plus, I wouldn't want to go by Tori to everyone, then have the legal name of Victoria if I didn't have any connection to the me or identity associated with it.
(Although, I do have a small caveat for nicknames that are generally only used for kids though. I know people with the legal names Jimmy and Billy, and I just can't get behind those because they seem like kid-only names that people grow out of. The person named Jimmy usually goes by Jim now that he's an adult, probably because Jimmy has juvenile vibes here. )
As parent of a Tess, I’m honor-bound to disagree with the ‘no nicknames as full names’ hill.