| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Male
Pronunciation: tah-kuu-yah [tá.kɯ̟̀ᵝ.jà]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
For the first element, any kanji with the on’yomi reading taku can be used, such as 拓 meaning “opening,” 卓 meaning “preeminence, excellence; table, desk,” 琢 meaning “polish, shine” or 託 meaning “entrusting.” It can also be split into two kanji, with a ta kanji like 汰 meaning “wash, scour,” 太 meaning “plump, thick” or 多 meaning “many, much,” and a ku kanji, e.g. 久 meaning “long time.” As for the second element, it can be used as
- 也, a phonetic kanji but can refer to the archaic auxiliary verb なり (nari) meaning “to be”
- 哉, a phonetic kanji
- 弥 meaning “increase”
- 矢 meaning “arrow”
- 耶, a phonetic kanji
- 野 meaning “field”
- 八 meaning “eight”
Popularity:
Although in use by the early 20th century, the name didn’t began to pick up steam until the 1960s when over 0.2% of boys were given this name in that decade. By the 1970s, it was in the top 50 with just under 0.5%, rising further to over 1.1% throughout the 1980s.
Takuya’s peak period of popularity was in the first 6 years of the Heisei period (1989-2019) when well over 1.6% of boys received this name every year at that time, placing it in 2nd or 3rd place, behind the millennial generation’s stalwart Yūki. The peak year was 1991 with over 1.94% of boys born with this name, dropping to over 1.66% by 1995. The next year though, the percentage more than halved to over 0.8%, thus beginning its drastic decline in popularity.
By the turn of the 20th century, the name’s usage more than halved again to over 0.39%, dropping to over 0.15% by 2007, meaning that, by then, it effectively left the top 100. According to my preliminary research into names from the period between 2014-8, it was given to just over 0.02% of boys, making Takuya a particularly dated name today.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 