Uta's first idea on a name for the baby was Cucumber. It was hard work to convince him that perhaps this was not the kindest of names to give his little sister. But finally he was able to see that a vegetable name, nice as a cucumber is, might give her some trouble growing up.
His second thought was Kiki, which he said just popped into his head. He then remembered Miyazaki's film 'Kiki's Delivery Service' and the name, for him, was cemented. Pop and I needed something more.
Kizuki evolved from there. The 'zu' is a respectful nod to a very inspiring friend, Yuzuru-san, Papa's 'Tokyo dad'. He has been a role model to us for a life led by generosity.
Japanese being a visual language, the way a name looks becomes equally important to how it sounds. And with two different writing systems of its own, and the use of Kanji (chinese characters), there are endless ways to write any given name, and just as many meanings to go along with it.
Once we had decided on 'Kizuki', we let Papa's parents decide how to write it. In the photo above you can see the Kanji they decided was best. (Kizuki is on the left, top to bottom. Uta is written on the right side, smaller characters, top to bottom.) The beginning 'Ki' means hope and the following 'zuki' means moon.
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