Given name & surname · Chinese · Japanese · Korean
明
“loud; bright”
明 is a surname from Proto-Sino-Tibetan. It is used in Chinese and Japanese.
Chinese and Japanese and KoreanWritten in Chinese characters script. In English: Akira.
Meaning & origin
What it means
明 goes back to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *brwaŋ, meaning “loud; bright.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *brwaŋ (“loud; bright”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
明’s family of names
In Chinese usage, 明 can be written in the Roman alphabet as Akira. In Chinese usage, 明 has a related form in 几. In Chinese usage, 明 has a related form in 朙.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
明 has relatives in 3 languages.
8 related names in 3 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 6
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 40
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
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- 周equivalent
- 東equivalent
- 行equivalent
- 章良equivalent
- 證equivalent
- 皓equivalent
- 晶equivalent
- 聡equivalent
- 鑑equivalent
- 暁equivalent
- 融equivalent
- 智equivalent
- 昌equivalent
- 哲equivalent
- 徹equivalent
- 亮equivalent
- Bengequivalent
- 陽equivalent
- 亨equivalent
- 光equivalent
- 斌equivalent
- 명equivalent
- 晃equivalent
- 公equivalent
- Myeongequivalent
- 昶equivalent
- 明良equivalent
- 聰equivalent
- 彰equivalent
- 章equivalent
- 啓equivalent
- 晟equivalent
People named 明
- Akira KurosawaJapanese filmmaker (1910–1998)
- Akira ToriyamaJapanese manga artist and character designer (1955-2024)
- Yao MingChinese basketball player (born 1980)
- Akira AmanoJapanese manga artistborn 1973
- Akira TakaradaJapanese actor (1934-2022)
- Akira EmotoJapanese actorborn 1948
- Akira KamiyaJapanese voice actorborn 1946
- Akira KuboJapanese actorborn 1936
- Akira SasakiJapanese alpine skierborn 1981
Characters named 明: Qin Ming (Water Margin character), Kong Ming (Water Margin character), Akira Fudo (Go Nagai's manga series Devilman), Yan Ming (Romance of the Three Kingdoms).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love 明, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.