Yuyas, Tohrus, and Sakuras(and other tidbits)

[meganbmoore]

This is more small boredom babble than anything else, forgive me.

Anyway, I have been mildly pondering, like (I think) most of the people on my f-list who would immediately think of a character from the names in the title, if I hear "Yuya" or "Tohru," I immediately think of the respective heroines of Samurai Deeper Kyo and Fruits Basket .  Every other time I've encountered either name though, it's been a boy's name.  I seem to remember an author's note in an early volume of Fruits Basket saying that Tohru was normally a boys name, is it the same with Yuya?  Are there any other well known(or even just major but obscure) female characters with boys' names?

And what about the reverse?  The only major male character I can think of with a girl's name is Sakura, the hero of Night of the Beasts, but it suits him(not because he's girly or wussy-the opposite, actually-but because of various spoilery themes with the character and book.)  Are there others?

And what about Ran and Aya?  What are they, traditionally?  I seem to see them getting about equal gender use.

Someday, I shall encounter a cheerful, open female character named Sasuke and die of shock.

Meanwhile, I sometimes think that lines like this are the real reason I read shonen manga(though, really, considering the typos and error in Vol 25 of Samurai Deeper Kyo, it's entirely possible the translator just pulled this out of his or her butt, but whatever.)

Prepare yourself, you sorry excuse for Kyo.  I'll pay you back for mimicking the master warrior.  You see, the power of the real Kyo is nothing like your unworthy impression.  And I shall carve that lesson into your impudent body.

So corny, so melodramatic, so shonen.  (If you consider people impersonating other people in SDK to be a spoiler, then clearly, you aren't very familiar with the series...it's an everyday thing there.)

Comments

[chomiji]

I know that Shigure, shortly after meeting Tohru, is musing "I like Tohru for a girl's name," with that expression which means that he's feeling wistful and romantic from his point of view, but that instantly causes Kyo and Yuki to jump all over him for being a pervert. (Yes, he is a pervert, but he's also leading a pretty deprived existence from that point of view ... .)

I think I found "Yuya" as a historical woman's name - maybe on Samurai Wiki as someone's wife - but all the modern ones I can find online are men. It seems to have gone like the English name "Christian," which used to be a girl's name. But certainly I myself think it sounds odd to have a boy named Yuya, since I first ran into it as the name of SDK's sweet but tough blonde ingenue.

And it wouldn't surprise me that Akira would say something like that - he can be pretty high-falutin' in his speech.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah...SDK Yuya was my intro to the name, and it "feels" like a girl's name...but every other Yuya I've encountered is a sweet, cheerful boy. Tohru,though, I most associate w/ FB Tohru, but it still "feels" like a boy's name to me.

Akira gets very, very caught up in his high falutin' speech, really.

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

This is just what I've seen with my students these past few months (so it's nothing scientific or anything). I've only seen Yuya and Toru as boy names and Aya as a name for a girl, and I haven't encountered a Ran yet, though I do have a male Ren.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think Yuya is a case of a name that used to be a girl's named but is now used as a boy's. Honda Tohru is probably the exception to her gender.

[fenrir-khan.livejournal.com]

I also have this tendancy to link a name to a particular character that I think 'epitomized' it or something.
For instance, Rei will always be Ayanami Rei to me, no matter how many characters -- male or female -- go by the same name. For this reason, I irrationally expect each and every Rei in manga/anime-land to be emotionless and suicidal. Although, you could say Gals! and High School Kimengumi sort of stumped me on this one.

Ran is Shinichi Kudô's love interest in Detective Conan.

As for Tohru, he'll always be that creepy guy on the last book of Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy. No Tohru can ever factor in unless he/she tries to off his/her adoptive father.

I don't know about Yuya, but, having read Gals! before SDK, I think it suits a boy better than a girl.

Anyway, I really like the unisex names. All the more if it's a rather manly name and it's a girl who bears it and vice-versa. Thus my love of Tsukasa's patronym on Tôkyô Crazy Paradise or Akira's in Kaguya Hime.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

heh...i don't recognize half those characters.