| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Male, can be female as well
Pronunciation: ahnʸ-jee [ã́ɲ̟̀.dʑì]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
As a preface to the usual talking points here, female usage of this name seems to be influenced by Angie, the diminutive of Angela (Female Anji as 天使 is found on the ENAMDICT, though no evidence of it being used as such can be found).
For the most part, kanji which can be used for the first element on both genders are 晏 meaning “calm, tranquil,” 杏 meaning “apricot” and 安 meaning “quiet, peaceful” (庵, meaning “hermitage, retreat,” seems to be used exclusively for boys). The second element includes a number of kanji used mainly for either males or females or can be used on either gender:
- Both genders:
- 慈 meaning “mercy, affection”
- 詩 meaning “poem”
- 路 meaning “road, path; way”
- 時 meaning “time”
- Mainly female usage:
- 蒔 meaning “sowing, planting”
- 樹 meaning “tree”
- 紫 meaning “purple, violet”
- 心 meaning “heart, mind”
- Mainly male usage:
- 士°/侍, referring, in this case, to a man° or samurai
- 滋 meaning “nourishment”
- 志 meaning “will, aim, goal”
- 嗣 meaning “heir, successor”
- 詞 meaning “words, writing”
- 司 meaning “office”
- 獅 meaning “lion”
- 次 meaning “next”
- 二 meaning “two”
- 治 meaning “cure; management”
- 史 meaning “history”
Popularity:
The name had been in use as a rare masculine name in the Meiji period (1868-1912), though by the Heisei period (1989-2019), it began seeing use among females as well. Initially rare among both genders in the first half of the 1990s, by the mid-2010s, usage of this name increased with over 0.02% of boys and over 0.01% of girls receiving this name from 2014-8 according to my preliminary names research for that time period.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 