When you get a rabbit, naming it is an extremely difficult task. It is natural to want to give your rabbit a nice name. This time, we would like to introduce the ranking of Japanese rabbit names.
目次
１．Rabbit Name Ranking
We would like to look at the results based on the ranking surveyed by ”Ipet Insurance Co”.
The names of rabbits newly enrolled in pet insurance are ranked in descending order of popularity.
Since the rabbit data was surveyed starting in FY 2019 (April 1, 2018), we will look at the results here side by side by year.
Rabbit Name Rankings (2019-2022)
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | きなこ＝soy flour | きなこ＝soy flour | きなこ＝soy flour | きなこ＝soy flour |
| 2nd | モカ＝mocha | モカ＝mocha | モカ／むぎ＝mocha/barley | むぎ＝barley |
| 3rd | こむぎ＝wheat | ココ＝coco | マロン＝chestnut | こむぎ＝wheat |
No. 1 is Soy flour（read kinako）.
We found that kinako is in the lead from 2019 to 2022.
Kinako is a yellow powder made from roasted, peeled and ground soybeans. It is used in Japanese confectionery and is very tasty when sprinkled with sugar.
Mocha is the second largest in 2019-2021. Mocha is a type of coffee bean. The Japanese reading is "moka".
Many Japanese rabbits are brownish in color. Perhaps many people name their rabbits after their coat color.
The name "wheat" has been trending since 2021. In Japanese, it is read as "mugi.
The color of barley is very similar to the color of Japanese rabbits. The sound of "mugi" is also very cute, which is why it became so popular.
２．Why are many names Mugi and Komugi used？
Kinako was No. 1 in the name ranking, but the names of rabbits owned by my acquaintances are very often "Mugi".
When I asked him why he chose the name Mugi-chan, she said, "Because it sounds good”. Indeed, "Mugi" and "komugi" in hiragana sound lovely when you say them aloud.
Many dog names have "barley" in them.
The results of a survey conducted by I-Pet Insurance showed that "mugi" is also used in many names of dogs and cats. I was curious as to why wheat, so I looked it up.
I found an article interviewing the owner who named her Mugi-chan.
@carrymugi-san：
「We often give two letter names to successive generations of dogs, and we started with a two letter name for this one as well.I was looking for a name that caught my attention by browsing the Internet and books, but I happened to have a flower book at home, and while flipping through it, I came across "wheat" on the grass page.
When I changed it to katakana, it matched Mugi's face perfectly, so I thought, 'That's it! and we decided to go with it.」
The owner thought it was a perfect name because of Mugi's wheat-like body color and the sound of "Mugi"!
いぬのきもちWEB MAGAZINE
@mugi_iriomote-san：
「I saw a picture the health department had given me and it was a golden puppy. Intuitively, I thought, 'That's Mugi! I thought, 'It's Mugi! It was a good balance with my family name, and no other names came to mind.」It seems that the moment he saw it, he was so surprised that he immediately decided to go with "Mugi".
いぬのきもちWEB MAGAZINE
The first owner got the name "Mugi" from "barley" found on the grass page of a flower illustrated book. The second owner seems to have decided on the name "Mugi" from the dog's coat color.
The two common reasons were that it sounded good and that it was well-balanced. We found that the final reason may be that the words have a good feel when called.
When I think of rabbit names, I too refer to an illustrated book. When I have a hard time deciding on a name, it may be fun to decide from a chance encounter, such as flipping through an illustrated book and choosing a letter that happens to catch my eye.
３．Finally
In this issue, we introduced the ranking of Japanese rabbit names for 2019-2022.
I have decided to name my rabbits in hiragana. I also often refer to other animals to give them unusual names so that they will not be confused with other rabbits.
What kind of names do you give your rabbits? We'd love to hear from you about unusual names, as well as some royal names!
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This article introduces the ranking of foreign rabbit names.
