| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Female, can be male as well
Pronunciation: nah-nah-se [ná.nà.sè̞]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
For the first element of this name, 七, referring to the numeral seven, is the main kanji used (虹, normally read as niji with the meaning “rainbow,” is an uncommon substitute, referring to its seven colours). Mainly a feminine occurrence, a na kanji, like 奈, 那 or 菜 meaning “greens,” can be combined with the kanji repeating marker 々, another na kanji or a repear of the first one.
As for the second element, any kanji that can be read as (or otherwise shift to) se is used. They include:
- 星 meaning “star”
- 瀬 meaning “shallows, rapids”
- 聖 meaning “sacred, holy”
- 生 meaning “live, living”
- 彩 meaning “colouring”
- 雪 meaning “snow”
- 惺 meaning “realise”
- 晟 meaning “clear”
- 青 meaning “blue”
- 彗, part of 彗星 (suisei) meaning “comet”
- 咲 meaning “blossom”
- 世 meaning “generation”
Popularity:
Rising in usage in the 1980s and 1990s, the name was originally given to over 0.02% of girls in the early 1990s with the rise gradually steepening for the next few years until around late 1995 when influence from rock and pop singer Aikawa Nanase led the name to its first peak, percentages for the next several years from 1997 ranging between 0.09% and 0.10%. At the same time, usage for boys grew to just under 0.01% by 2000.
Since the early 2000s, usage of this name dropped for both genders and by 2009, over 0.04% of baby girls received this name along with around 0.005% of boys. However, based on my preliminary 2014-9 names research combined with Baby Calendar rankings data, the name has been on the rise again with average percentages at well over 0.08% for girls and 0.01% for boys.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 