Chiikawa Name Generator

Chiikawa character names such as Hachiware and Kurimanju, alongside original names built the way the series builds them, like Shimaenaga, Kutsushita, Onigiri and Bento no Yoroi-san.

About Chiikawa names

Chiikawa is a manga by the Japanese illustrator Nagano that began as short comics posted online and later became a short-form anime. The title is a clipped form of a phrase meaning something small and cute, and most of the cast is named in the same plain way, with the everyday Japanese word for what the character is or looks like. Hachiware is the word for a cat whose face marking parts down the middle, Usagi means rabbit, Momonga is a flying squirrel, Rakko is a sea otter, Kurimanju is a chestnut bun and Furuhonya is a secondhand bookshop. The armored workers are named by their jobs, as in Pochette no Yoroi-san.

Only a small part of this list is character names: sixteen entries, among them Chiikawa, Anoko and Dekatsuyo. Everything else was written for this page in the same manner and is not offered as a character from the series. There are animal words such as Shimaenaga and Kawauso, coat patterns and looks such as Sabatora and Kutsushita, home cooking such as Onigiri and Tonjiru, traits such as Kuishinbo and Nebosuke, sound words such as Tekuteku and Mogumogu, shop names such as Dagashiya, folklore figures such as Komainu, clipped blends such as Fuwakawa and Chibitsuyo, and new job titles such as Bento no Yoroi-san.

How to choose Chiikawa names

• Say what you see. The series names characters with the plain word for the thing, so a name that describes your own creature, such as Taremimi for floppy ears or Shimashima for stripes, fits better than a pretty word that does not.
• Look up the meaning before you settle. The original entries are ordinary Japanese words, and a dictionary will tell you whether Nebosuke, a sleepyhead, or Kuishinbo, a big eater, suits the character you have in mind. Long vowels are mostly written out here, as in Fukurou and Houjicha, while food words English has borrowed keep their usual spelling, as in Tofu, Gyoza and Tempura, so try both spellings when you search.
• For a worker in armor, keep the pattern: the job or the thing they make, then no Yoroi-san. Pan no Yoroi-san reads as the armored person of the bread.
• Short wins. Most names here run three or four syllables, which a young child can say easily and fit on a drawing or a plush tag.
• Give your own characters one of the original names, or a word you pick yourself, and keep the character names for talking about the series.

Frequently asked questions

Which of these names come from the series?

Sixteen entries are character names, including Chiikawa, Hachiware, Usagi, Momonga, Kurimanju, Rakko and Shisa. The rest were written for this page in the same style and are not offered as characters. They are everyday words, so one may also turn up in the series. The character names are a small reference block, not a full cast list, and this is a fan page with no link to the creator or the publisher.

What does the name Chiikawa mean?

It is a clipped form of a longer Japanese phrase that means something small and cute, joining the start of chiisai, small, to the start of kawaii, cute. The blends in this list, such as Fuwakawa, Chiimaru and Dekayowa, are clipped together the same way from words like fuwafuwa for fluffy, marui for round, dekai for big and yowai for weak. They are made-up blends, not dictionary words.

How do the Yoroi-san names work?

Yoroi means armor and san is a polite title, and the word in front, joined by the particle no, says what that worker does or makes. The series uses the pattern for names such as Pochette no Yoroi-san and Ramen no Yoroi-san. The new ones here, such as Yuubin no Yoroi-san for the mail and Hirune no Yoroi-san for naps, follow the pattern and were not taken from the series.

Can I use these names for a pet, a plush or my own character?

Yes. The original entries are everyday Japanese words such as Kinoko, a mushroom, and Tekuteku, the sound of walking along, and they suit a pet, a plush or a drawing. For your own characters, choose from those rather than from the character names, which belong with the series.

Related generators

All 500 Chiikawa names