Naoto (なおと)

Sources

Pronunciation guide

(Main) gender: Male
Pronunciation: nah-o-to [ná.ò̞.tò̞]

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Etymology and/or ways to write:
The most common form of this name is 直人, a combination of 直 (nao) meaning “ordinary, common; straight” and 人 (to) meaning “person.” Other kanji used for this name can be seen in the table below:

nao (なお)		to (と)
尚/猶 “furthermore; still”		登 “ascent”
真 “pure, true”		翔/飛 “fly, soar”
誠 “truth, reality”		斗 “the Dipper”
治 “govern, manage”		都 “metropolis”
修 “discipline”		杜 “shrine grove”
有 “existing”		大 “large, big”
純 “innocent, chaste”		利 “sharp”
奈 phonetic kanji	央 “middle, centre”	仁 “benevolence, compassion, humanity”
那 phonetic kanji	生 “grow”	叶 “grant, answer”
七 “seven”	和 “harmony, peace”	士 “warrior; samurai”
		渡 “crossing, passage”
		永 “eternity”
		澄 “lucidity, transparency”

Alternatively, this name can be written with a combination of a na kanji, like 七, 夏 meaning “summer,” or 凪 meaning “calm, lull,” and 音 (oto) meaning “sound.”

Popularity:
Usage of this name from the early Meiji period (1868-1912) to the late Shōwa period (1926-1989) was fairly uncommon with percentage not rising above 0.1% until the mid-1950s. Even from the 1950s to the 1970s, it did not rank within the top 100 with percentages ranging from 0.1% to just above 0.2%.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that Naoto started to continuously rank within the top 100 with percentages above 0.25% at any given year in that decade. By 1990, it was given to over 0.4% of boys, though it dropped back outside the top 100 before the new millennium. By 2009, usage levels fell below 0.1% but based on Baby Calendar rankings data as well as my preliminary 2014-20 names research, it did rise back above 0.1% with an average percentage of around 0.13%.

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