Names where the kanji carries the meaning.
Japanese girl names are characterised by the kanji — the Chinese characters used to write them — which each carry a distinct meaning. The same sound can be written with different kanji to give the name a different meaning entirely. Sakura, written 桜, means cherry blossom. Written 咲, it means "to bloom."
Our Japanese name entries show the most common kanji choices alongside the romanised spelling. Where families traditionally choose particular characters for symbolic reasons, we note that too.