| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Male
Pronunciation: hah-yuu-mah [há.jɯ̟̀ᵝ.mà]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
For the first element, any kanji can be used that contains the stem reading hay-, like 隼 (hayabusa), referring to the peregrine falcon, 颯/駿, from 疾風 (hayate) referring to a gale or otherwise a strong or swift wind, 映, from the classical verb 映ゆ (hayu) meaning “to shine, glow,” or 早 (haya) meaning “early.” It can also be split into two kanji, a ha kanji like 羽 meaning “feather” or 波 meaning “wave” and a yu kanji such as 優 meaning “gentle, elegant; excellence, superiority,” 由 meaning “reason, cause” or 祐/佑 meaning “help.”
As for the second element, any kanji with the reading ma can be used, such as:
- 磨/摩 meaning “polish, shine”
- 真/眞 meaning “truth”
- 馬 meaning “horse”
- 麻 meaning “hemp, flax”
- 万 meaning “ten thousand”
- 茉, part of 茉莉 (matsuri) referring to the Arabian jasmine
Popularity:
With its usage influenced by footballer Tanaka Hayuma, especially after his marriage to model Malia in 2001 and the birth of their son the next year, percentages from 2002 to the end of the 2000s (when 隼磨 was the most popular form) stayed between 0.005% and 0.010%, going above the 0.010% threshold in the second half of the 2010s.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 