Japanese Name Database: data and tools for analyzing trends in Japanese given names.
Part of the research project Names and Gender — The Growing Trend of Non-Gender-Specific Names in Contemporary Japan.
| Source | Label | Years | Contents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baby Calendar | bc | 2008-2022 | Individual names with orthography, pronunciation, gender, location |
| Heisei Namae Jiten | hs | 1989-2009 | Ranked name frequencies (orthography only) |
| Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance | meiji | 1912-2024 | Top-ranked names (orthography + pronunciation from 2004) |
See ATTRIBUTIONS.md for copyright and licensing details for each dataset.
Rebuild everything from the raw data:
bash makedb.sh # build DB + run analysis (default)
bash makedb.sh db # build DB only
bash makedb.sh analysis # run analysis only (DB must already exist)db creates web/db/namae.db (SQLite) and exports TSV files to
data/download/. analysis generates plots and JSON files under
web/static/. See DATABASE.md for the schema and
pipeline details.
To export the cleaned ranked data as tab-separated files:
python scripts/export_tsv.pyThis writes six files to data/download/:
baby_calendar_names.tsv— Baby Calendar, orth-only & pron-only rankings (2008-2022)baby_calendar_names_both.tsv— Baby Calendar, orth+pron pairs (2008-2022)heisei_names.tsv— Heisei Namae Jiten ranked names (1989-2009)meiji_yasuda_names.tsv— Meiji Yasuda ranked names (1912-2024)meiji_yasuda_totals.tsv— Meiji Yasuda survey totals (2004-2024)live_births.tsv— Annual live births in Japan (1873-2023)
See data/download/README.md for column descriptions and details of
the cleaning applied to each source.
pip install -r requirements.txt
flask --app web runSee Install.md for production deployment notes (Apache/WSGI on a specific server).
See CITATION.cff or cite:
Bond, Francis, & Barešová, Ivona. (2025). Japanese Given Names: Data, Analysis, and Interactive Resources. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18591986