| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Male, can be female as well
Pronunciation: kah-tsuu–rah [kà.tsɨ́ᵝ.ɾá]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
The name is usually written as 桂, referring to the tree of the same name (the scientific name being Cercidiphyllum). It is ultimately derived from a combination of 香 (ka) meaning “good smell, fragrance, aroma,” 出 (dzu), contracted from obsolete verb 出づ (idzu) meaning “to exit, go/come out,” and the nominalising suffix -ra/ら.
A -ra kanji can be added after 桂, namely 羅 meaning “thin silk, gauze” or 良 meaning “good.” 桂 can alternatively be replaced with a two-kanji set-up, using a ka kanji like 香 or 加 meaning “addition” and a tsu kanji like 津 meaning “harbour, haven” or 都 meaning “metropolis.”
Popularity:
According to telephone book data, there are 3,831 people with the kanji 桂 included there. When considering the different readings, I would place the estimate of people named Katsura to be around 0.005-7%. Regardless, it is an uncommon name (and kanji at that) to have overall. Regarding gender, it was mainly used on males when considering those born in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods. Heading into the Heisei period (1989-2019), it already became rarely used (less than 0.01%) and, gender-wise, it was more or less even.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 