| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Male
Pronunciation: ko:–tah–ro: [kò̞ó̞.tá.ɾó̞ː]
Variant transliterations: Kotaro, Koutarou
Etymology and/or ways to write:
The second element of this name is most commonly written as 太郎 (tarō), a birth order suffix referring to an eldest son. Substitutes include 大 (ta) meaning “large, big,” 汰 (ta) meaning “wash, scour,” 多 (ta) meaning “many, much” and 朗 (rō) meaning “cheerful.” As for the first element, any kō kanji can be used, such as:
- 幸/倖 meaning “good luck, happiness”
- 孝 meaning “filial piety”
- 航 meaning “navigation”
- 晃/煌 meaning “brilliant, bright, dazzling”
- 康 meaning “peace”
- 洸 meaning “valiant, brave”
- 光 meaning “light; ray, beam, glow”
- 広~廣/弘/宏/浩/紘/滉 meaning “spacious, vast, wide”
- 鋼 meaning “steel”
- 甲 meaning “shell”
- 公 meaning “monarch, ruler”
- 晄 meaning “clear”
- 虹 meaning “rainbow”
- 耕 meaning “tilling, cultivation”
- 鴻 meaning “large bird”
- 昊 meaning “sky”
- 興 meaning “interest, entertainment”
- 荒 meaning “rough, wild, raw”
- 鑛 meaning “ore”
Popularity:
Based on data from Collazo and merchant data available via Issendai, Kōtarō wasn’t used very much in the Edo period (1603-1868) but, from what I can gather from passenger lists, it did gain steam in the Meiji period (1868-1912), ranking somewhere around the lower half of the top 100 up to the 1910s when it began dropping off. From the 1950s to the 1980s, usage went up and down within the 0.05% to 0.2% range, though it did end up rising again starting in the late 1980s.
In 1990, it was given to over 0.24% of boys and though it did drop a little bit to over 0.2% by 1994, it rose again throughout the rest of the 1990s and 2000s. By 2007, it was given to over 0.65% of boys. Based on data from Baby Calendar, Tamahiyo and Meiji Yasuda Life as well as my preliminary 2014-9 names research, by that time period, the name was already starting to drop off and currently, it is being given to 0.3% or less of baby boys, effectively out of the top 50.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 