Runa (るな)

Sources

Pronunciation guide

(Main) gender: Female
Pronunciation: ruu-nah [ɾɯ̟́ᵝ.nà]

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Etymology and/or ways to write:
This name is an adaptation of Latin lūna, which refers to the Moon (and, figuratively, a month or a night), exemplified by the appearance of the kanji 月 (normally read as tsuki) in two-kanji combinations and, occasionally, on its own. More commonly, however, it is written with a ru kanji, like 瑠/琉, part of 瑠璃/琉璃 (ruri) meaning “lapis lazuli,” 留 meaning “stop” or 流 meaning “current, flow,” with a kanji that can be (partially) read as na, such as:

• 奈, a phonetic kanji
• 菜 meaning “greens”
• 那, a phonetic kanji
• 南 meaning “south”
• 夏 meaning “summer”
• 愛 meaning “beloved”
• 渚 meaning “beach, shore”
• 七 meaning “seven”
• 名 meaning “name”
• 凪 meaning “calm, lull”
• 捺, a phonetic kanji
• 花/華 meaning “flower”
• 絆 meaning “bonds, relationship; tether”
• 梛, referring to the Asian bayberry
• 梨 meaning “pear”
• 叶 meaning “grant, answer”
• 奏 meaning “playing music”

There are a few other examples out there which pertain to the inclusion of kanji for the sake of image, such as 月姫, 月星, 美月 with the added kanji meaning “princess,” “star” and “beauty” respectively.

Popularity:
For the next couple of decades after the Second World War, Runa snailishly increased in usage from being an extreme rarity to just under 0.03% by the start of the Heisei period (1989-2019). From 1992, its increase began to steepen which led to the name entering the top 100 by 1997 and already ranking within the top 50 by the new millennium.
For the next decade and some portion of the early 2010s, the name maintained its relevance in the top 50 list with percentages not dropping below 0.45%, though not breaking the top 20 either. Since the mid-2010s, it has lost a little bit of its lustre. Based on Baby Calendar rankings data as well as my preliminary 2014-20 names research however, it is still ranking at the bottom half of the top 100 with average percentages above the 0.3% range, though with percentages occasionally dropping below it.

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