"Does Lucia sound cool to French people too?"
This casual conversation with a friend led me into deep contemplation about the mysterious nature of names. What are names, really? Are they mere identification markers, or encrypted codes etched into the soul?
Observing naming cultures around the world reveals humanity's collective unconscious. In the moment parents bestow a name upon their child, the values of an era, cultural aspirations, and prayers for the future crystallize into a single word.
The Poetics of French Resonance
I recall meeting a young man named Lucien in Paris. The moment I heard his name, it somehow carried a literary fragrance. Later research revealed that this name means "light" and is commonly used for intellectual male characters in French literature.
For the French, names are music. The soft resonance of Sophie, the grandeur of Océane. When they name their children, they prioritize the aesthetic value held within those sounds. Names themselves become poetry.
Interestingly, while the same concept of "light" exists globally, in Japan it becomes "Hikaru," "Kota," or "Mitsuko," where the visual imagery of kanji characters is added. While French culture emphasizes the flow of sound, Japanese culture allows written characters to speak directly to the soul.
America's Ambitious Naming Strategies
What surprised me most in America was discovering parents who actually name their children "King," "Prince," or "Messiah." This would be equivalent to naming children "Ō" (King), "Ōji" (Prince), or "Kyūseishu" (Savior) in Japanese, yet American society accepts this.
This is no coincidence. America itself was born as a rebellion against European class society. If you reject existing authority, why not birth your child as royalty? Names become parental ambition and success blueprints for children.
Encountering the name "Nevaeh" was even more astonishing. This is a coined word—"Heaven" spelled backwards. Traditional religious concepts are reconstructed through individual creativity. This reflects a distinctly American philosophy of creating even God through personal innovation.
India's Sacred Everyday
Meeting a boy named "Shiva" in India initially caused me bewilderment—using the name of the god of destruction and regeneration as a personal name. However, deeper reflection reveals this as an expression of profound worldview.
In Hinduism, individuals can live as divine incarnations. Giving children godly names expresses prayers for them to embody divinity. This represents a cosmic identity construction different from Western individualism.
Imagining naming children "Amaterasu" or "Susanoo" in Japan helps understand this cultural distance. The proximity between divine and human, the boundaries between sacred and secular, vary dramatically across cultures.
Japan's Kanji Magic
Simply criticizing Japan's "kirakira name" (glittery name) phenomenon is inadequate. Names like "Kokoa" (心愛, heart-love) or "Kirara" (希星, hope-star) contain complex aesthetics unique to kanji-using cultures.
A single name contains dual structures of "meaning" and "sound," plus "visual beauty." This system is globally extraordinary. Parents can embed wishes across three dimensions: concept, resonance, and form.
If problems exist, they lie not in readability but in modern Japanese society's oscillation between individuality and harmony.
Prince's New Dimensional Opening
When music revolutionary Prince changed his name to a symbol, the world was bewildered. The absurdity of being called "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" in hospitals. The practical confusion of being unable to print symbols on passports.
Yet he posed fundamental questions about naming concepts. What are names? What is identity? Must we truly be bound by names?
In today's digital age, we use multiple names: real names, nicknames, handles, social media accounts. Prince was perhaps ahead of his time.
Naming Systems as Soul Maps
Surveying naming cultures globally reveals humanity's fundamental questions:
Who are we? Where do we come from, and where are we headed?
French people seek answers in beauty and harmony, Americans find them in success and individuality, Indians pursue truth through unity with divinity. Japanese seek soul's peace through fusion of meaning and sound.
Names also serve as blueprints for "ideal human images" each culture holds. When parents name their children, they embed prayers: "I want this child to become this kind of person."
Future Vision: The Coming Age of Soul OS Design
The future I envision transcends traditional naming systems into entirely new dimensions.
AI-assisted soul-based naming systems will emerge. Rather than simply combining sounds and meanings, these systems will read children's soul characteristics, karmic patterns from past lives, and life missions to suggest optimal names.
The multi-layered identity era will normalize individuals using multiple names for different purposes. Spiritual names, social names, creative names, private names—each expressing different aspects of the soul.
Symbolic naming proliferation will advance. Prince's pioneering symbolic self-expression will become natural choices for digital natives. Names combining Unicode characters and emojis, or names expressible only through voice, may emerge.
Cross-cultural naming fusion will birth new styles integrating multiple cultural naming traditions. For example, systems combining Japanese kanji semantics, French phonetic beauty, Indian mythological backgrounds, and American creativity.
Conclusion: Names Are Songs of the Soul
Names might be the first songs souls sing when inhabiting bodies.
The act of parents bestowing names is not mere social procedure. It represents soul contracts, destiny design, and crystallized love. Global naming cultures demonstrate how deeply humanity has invested meaning in names.
In our globalizing era, we bear responsibility to learn from diverse naming cultures and create richer naming worlds. This marks the beginning of a new naming age that respects cultural diversity while maximizing individual soul freedom.
Names are soul genealogies continuing from past to future, while simultaneously being lights of individuality shining in present moments. A truly mature civilization treasures both aspects.
We all live bearing poems called names. Understanding these poems' meanings and creating new ones may be what our era demands.
Ray Kissyou
Thought Engineering Researcher & Spiritual Architect
