Meaningful Name/Visual Novel

Meaningful Names are just as likely to appear in Visual Novels as in Anime or Video Games:

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• From Fate/stay night:
  • The main character, Emiya Shirou. The first kanji in the name Emiya means "protection". Shirou is spelled with the kanji for "soldier" and "son". As a word, "shirou" means "white", and can carry connotations similar to the English phrase "white hat". All of these fit with Shirou's character and Backstory.
  • Rin, the Tsundere, writes her name with the kanji for "cold". The word actually means an "official", fitting with Rin's role as administrator of the land used for the Grail War.
  • Sakura's name means "Cherry Blossom", which is significant for reasons explained on that page.
  • Having a name that means "beautiful" is a sick joke that life has played on Kotomine Kirei. It is also an appropriate reference to the prayer "Kýrie Eléison", meaning "Lord, have mercy!" (which, later in the story, is the prayer Kirei uses to exorcise Zouken).
    • Kirei's backstory reveals that his name actually invokes this trope; his father gave him this name specifically because of those two meanings, hoping they will affect who his son grows up to be. A sick joke, indeed.
  • Fujimura Taiga has much in common with tigers. She even wears a yellow and black striped shirt. She seems to acknowledge this (she's named her kendo stick Torashinai, "tora" being Japanese for tiger), but whatever you do, don't call her Tiger.
• Shion and Mion in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Both their names are written with the kanji for "oni," as is the tradition in the Sonozaki family. In keeping with this, Mion (or, rather, Shion) has an oni tattoo on her back; in general, oni are very significant throughout the question arcs of the series.
• Umineko no Naku Koro ni:
  • There's a certain amount of Theme Naming going on with the witches; Beatrice and Virgilia are named for characters in Dante's Divine Comedy. Maria has the power to create a soul out of the void, and, Foreign Sounding Gibberish issues aside, Battler, is not prone to giving up.
  • The Seven Sisters of Purgatory. All named various names of The Devil, the most obvious being Satan and Lucifer. Rather brilliantly, their "sins" are all related to that particular name, such as Lucifer being Pride: in the Bible, The Devil was known as Lucifer as an Angel who fell from Heaven because of pride. Mammon is used to refer to greed, etc.
• In Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai, "Kawakami" uses the kanji for "God" as opposed to the more commonplace "Above" - a fitting name for the fighting style known as Japan's ultimate secret weapon. * In Katawa Shoujo
  • Hisao is written as "long time [of absence]" (久) + "man/husband" (夫), the former being a reference to his months-long hospitalization, and the latter meaning of the latter being what he could become to the girls.
  • Emi means "Smiling Beauty", which fits her cheerful, energetic personality which turns out to be a more of a facade.
  • Hanako means "flower child" or "blooming child", possibly a reference to her opening up in her and Lilly's routes.
  • Lilly's name apparently comes from the lily (百合), or yuri. She has a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship with her best friend Hanako, and it is implied that she has received love confessions from girls in the past.
  • Rin's family name Tezuka is [手塚] has (hand + mound), and is also a Shout-Out to the famous Ozamu Tezuka, which is fitting because Rin is an artist.
  • Shizune[静音] has (quiet + sound). Her original development name was "Rosa", partially from the Japanese word for "deaf" (rousha).
  • While Iwanako's name is not quite a Japanese name, it contains the kanji for "fish", possibly a reference to her being "the one who got away".