| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Female
Pronunciation: kah-yah-no [ká.jà.nò̞]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
At first glance, it may look like a combination of 茅 (kaya), a general term for grass or sedge that is used for thatching, and a no kanji, like 乃, referring to the possessive particle, or 野 meaning “field.” While that is used, it is more common, especially today, for the first element to be split into two kanji, as shown in the table below:
| ka (か) | ya (や) |
| 佳 “beautiful, good” | 也 phonetic kanji* |
| 華/花 “flower” | 弥 “increase” |
| 香 “fragrance” | 耶 phonetic kanji |
| 夏 “summer” | 矢 “arrow” |
| 禾 “grain, cereal” | 椰 “(coconut) palm” |
| 加 “addition” |
* can refer to archaic auxiliary verb なり (nari) meaning “to be”
Popularity:
In use since the late Edo period (1603-1868), it has always been somewhat of an uncommon name, not getting above 0.02% throughout the 20th century. Regarding its usage from the Heisei period (1989-2019) onwards, it was only given to over 0.002% of girls in 1990, slowly rising in the first half of the decade before rising to just under 0.010% by 1996.
From its peak of over 0.01% in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the name fell down a bit to around 0.007% by 2007. In recent years, it has been increasing in usage again, in tandem with the general increase in usage of the name Kaya. Based on Baby Calendar rankings data as well as my 2014-20 names research, in 2020, the name was given to well over 0.02% of baby girls.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 