| Sources | Pronunciation guide |
(Main) gender: Female, can be male as well
Pronunciation: mʸee-yah-bʸee [mʲí.jà.bʲì]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
This name is derived from the adjective 雅 (miyabi) meaning “courtly, elegant, refined,” from the stem/continuative form of the verb みやぶ (miyabu) meaning “to be courtly, elegant, refined.” The verb itself is derived from 宮 (miya) meaning “palace; shrine” combined with the verb-forming suffix ぶ (bu) that has a meaning of “to seem like, have that quality.”
雅 can also be part of a 2-kanji combination with a kanji inserted either after or before. For the former, a kanji that can be read as bi is used, like 陽/日 meaning “day; sun,” 弥 meaning “increase” or 姫/妃 meaning “princess.” For the latter, a kanji with the reading mi is used, such as 美 meaning “beauty,” 心 meaning “heart, mind” or 未, referring to the sign of the Sheep or part of the word 未来 (mirai) meaning “future.”
As for other ways to write this name, 雅 in 2-kanji combinations can be substituted with those with the (partial) reading miya, like 都/京, from miyako referring to a capital or a seat of government (originally referring to the place of residence of the emperor), and 宮. For 3-kanji combinations, ya kanji used for this include 弥, 夜 meaning “night,” 雅 and 哉.
Popularity:
In use since at least the 1920s, the name started to rise in usage for girls in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1989, just under 0.03% of baby girls received this name, peaking at over 0.11% in 1999 before dropping to over 0.05% by 2009.
By the mid-2010s, it had gone back up, sometimes getting above 0.1% again. By this point, usage for boys had already gone well above 0.02% which wasn’t the case throughout much of the 1990s. The rise as a masculine name was likely prompted by guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor MIYAVI.
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Beyond Sakura and Hiroshi 