| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Male
Pronunciation: mah-sah-yuu-kʸee [mà.sá.jɯ̟̀ᵝ.kʲì]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
The first element of this name is derived from either 正 (masa) meaning “exact, precise” or the stem of the verb 勝る/優る (masaru) meaning “to excel, surpass, exceed; to outweigh” while the second is mainly written as either 之/行 meaning “way, travel” or 幸 meaning “good luck, happiness.” Other kanji in use for the first element include:
- 雅 meaning “refinement, elegance”
- 昌 meaning “prosperous”
- 政 meaning “rule”
- 真/眞 meaning “pure, true”
- 将, see 正
- 晶 meaning “sparkle, crystal” (may be used for similarity to 昌)
- 理 meaning “reason, logic”
- 誠 meaning “truth, reality”
Popularity:
The name saw some usage as an adult name among the upper class before the Meiji period (1603-1868), counting over 25 examples from the Kamakura (1185–1333) to the Edo (1603-1868) periods on the Japanese Wikipedia, two of which also included on the English version (Hoshina and Sanada).
Heading into the latter half of the Meiji period, the name was already within the top 100 among the wider population. This would last well into the early 1990s with a general peak in popularity from the 1950s to the 1970s with percentages at 0.6% or over. By 2000, less than 0.1% of boys received this name and usage of Masayuki slowly fell over the years and decades. Based on Baby Calendar rankings data as well as my preliminary 2014-9 names research, the average percentage for that time frame is calculated at only over 0.03%.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 