Naming Is Poetry

The way we name things changes the way we see the world

Photo by Quinn Buffing on Unsplash

Children’s names. Brand names. Service names.

Throughout our lives, we spend a surprising amount of time naming things.

1. Naming Creates Boundaries

Naming is often described as a way to make the world easier to recognize through labels.

But perhaps its essence is slightly different.

At the same time that a name clarifies something, it also pushes something else outside the boundary of that name.

Naming may be an act of cutting out a piece of the world and drawing a line around it.

2. Human Naming

Life begins with receiving a name. That is the moment of my birth. Later, we may also give names to our own children.

What do people think about when choosing a name? How do they decide?

The answers seem to differ greatly depending on culture and the nature of language itself.

Some names preserve lineage. Some carry an image. Some contain a wish or a prayer.

In Japan, names often contain a sense of prayer or hope. Part of this may come from culture, but I also think it is deeply connected to the use of kanji, ideographic characters that carry meaning within the characters themselves.

Japanese naming also tends to value sound in addition to meaning. Kanji are sometimes chosen to match pronunciation, creating layers of ambiguity and multiple meanings.

Perhaps because of this cultural background, not only children’s names but many forms of naming in Japan seem to have uniquely Japanese characteristics.

From here onward, this becomes less a strict linguistic argument and more a personal reflection shaped by my experience of using Japanese.

3. Business Naming

Beyond personal life, business is also a continuous act of naming.

Brands. Services. Concepts. Catchphrases.

Names often become the starting point of action.

In business, clarity is probably valued universally. Very long names are rare.

However, the way “clarity” is expressed seems to differ across cultures.

In English-speaking countries, names often appear more function-oriented, while in Japanese, sound and familiarity sometimes feel more important.

For example, in payment services there is PayPal, while in Japan there is PayPay.

Even among similar payment services, Japanese naming often emphasizes friendliness and pronunciation.

The way abbreviations are formed also differs.

In English-speaking contexts, abbreviations like these are common:

• International Business Machines → IBM
• application → app
• refrigerator → fridge

These are based largely on spelling, allowing people to reconstruct the original meaning through context or structure. Especially in business, official abbreviations are often used formally by companies themselves.

In Japan, abbreviations often look different:

• Personal Computer → Pasokon
• Sexual Harassment → Sekuhara
• Pocket Monsters (Pokémon) → Pokémon
• convenience store → Konbini
• Starbucks → Sutaba

Here, sound often feels more important than literal meaning. Patterns exist, but the rules of reconstruction are less explicit. And rather than official naming, organically spreading nicknames often become the dominant form.

Seen this way, cultural differences may also shape how naming itself becomes tied to recognition and perception.

4. Japanese Language Structure

Consider the Japanese language itself.

Japanese uses three writing systems: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. Kanji are ideographic, while hiragana and katakana are phonetic.

This allows meaning and sound to separate from one another, while also making identical sounds capable of carrying multiple meanings.

In other words, Japanese constantly contains a dual structure of sound and meaning. And this duality exists not only at the level of pronunciation, but within the written text itself.

The visual texture of each script also carries different emotional impressions. Rounded hiragana can feel soft and gentle, while kanji can feel formal or rigid. This is not merely a matter of font choice.

As a result, Japanese naming often combines meaning, sound, and atmosphere simultaneously. Perhaps this atmosphere is connected to the sense of ambiguity and openness often found in Japanese.

To exaggerate slightly, it can sometimes feel as if Japanese speakers are constantly communicating through miniature catchphrases.

5. Imported Words and Reinterpretation

Why does Japanese have two phonetic writing systems?

Historically, katakana emerged from kanji, and hiragana later developed from that process. Yet katakana itself never disappeared.

I cannot fully explain why katakana remained. But perhaps it is not unrelated to Japan’s long history of accepting and reinterpreting foreign concepts.

One common use of katakana is writing foreign loanwords.

Foreign words are absorbed into Japanese through approximate pronunciation.

• Strategy → sutoratejī
• Naming → nēmingu

Even when Japanese already contains similar native words, specialized concepts are often written in katakana instead.

This suggests a tendency to place imported concepts into Japanese through reinterpretation.

The original meaning survives, but it gradually spreads while carrying the texture of Japanese itself.

That process also creates slight shifts, gaps, and ambiguity around meaning.

This tendency has made foreign concepts easier for Japanese society to absorb and adapt. At the same time, it may also make it harder to preserve the original conceptual structure completely.

6. Poetry Beyond Naming

Although I have focused on Japanese, similar things may happen across many cultures.

Reinterpreting concepts through cultural context is itself an act of naming.

If naming is reinterpretation, then naming becomes an act of reinterpreting the world and handling boundaries.

Where should the boundary be placed?

Just as katakana imports new concepts into Japanese, giving something a name can create categories that did not previously exist. And when an existing concept is reinterpreted across cultures, those boundaries may shift.

This structure feels very similar to the function of poetry.

Poetry shakes boundaries and changes the way the world appears. It creates new boundaries within previously undefined spaces.

Perhaps that is why naming itself can feel close to poetry.

7. Closing

A name is understanding. But it is also omission.

To draw a boundary is to create both an inside and an outside. What falls inside the line becomes fixed through naming, while what remains outside often stays unnamed.

And eventually, unseen.

Each time we name something, the world becomes more organized. And at the same time, new unnamed territories quietly come into existence.