(Main) gender: Male
Pronunciation: hah-ruu-to [há.ɾɯ̟̀ᵝ.tò̞]
Etymology and/or ways to write:
Currently, the most popular form of this name is 陽翔, made up of 陽 meaning “day, sun” and 翔 meaning “fly, soar.” Excluding alternative forms of kanji, from my research, there are well over 2,500 combinations of Haruto, so it is impossible for me to go over every kanji I’ve found without taking an extremely huge chunk of the article, so I am going over some of the kanji used for this name.
For the first element, among other themes, there are 3 main ones where the kanji are grouped in, with overlap for some:
- Related/connotated to 遥か/遙か (haruka) “far off, distant”:
- Shared meanings: 悠 and 遼
- 大* meaning “large, big”
- 治 meaning “govern, manage”
- 永* meaning “long”
- 浩 meaning “spacious, vast, wide”
- Related/connotated to 晴れ (hare) “clear/fine weather”:
- 啓/開 meaning “opening”
- 青/蒼, generally meaning “blue”
- 天 meaning “sky”
- 明 meaning “bright”
- 日 meaning “day”
- Related/connotated to 春 (haru) “spring”:
- 暖/温 meaning “warmth”
- 桜 meaning “cherry (tree, blossom)”
- 華/花 meaning “flower”
There are instances of Haruto being written with a single kanji, such kanji including 悠, 晴 and 暖. As for the second element*, some of the kanji used there include:
- 斗, referring to the Chinese constellation known as the Dipper
- 人 meaning “person”
- 仁 meaning “benevolence, compassion, humanity”
- 音 meaning “sound”
- 登 meaning “ascent”
- 都 meaning “metropolis”
- 士 meaning “warrior; samurai”
- 叶 meaning “grant, answer”
- 飛 meaning “fly, soar”
Popularity:
Although it has been in use since at least the Meiji period (1868-1912), for over a century it had been an uncommonly used name. Throughout much of the 1990s, Haruto had been on a steady climb, rising from over 0.02% in 1990 to over 0.09% in 1996, though by 1998, the steady climb had turned into a steep jump into popularity. What prompted this jump is the birth of the son of Amuro Namie, now retired from the music and entertainment business, which, when looking at the context, is no surprise given her star power at the time.
By 2004, it was already given to more than a percent of boys, doubling to well over 2% by the end of the 2000s. By then, Haruto became the top Japanese boy name, which it has been now for the last 10 years or so and will remain on top for a while as we head forward into the current Reiwa period.
If you would like to add in your thoughts about this name, please share them in the comments below.