Japanese Names That Mean Moon: Surnames and Beautiful Moon Names

Short answer

• The Japanese word for moon is tsuki, written with the kanji 月, which is also read getsu or gatsu in compounds and which means month as well as moon. Almost every genuine Japanese name that means moon is built on that one character, read tsuki at the start of a word, voiced to zuki at the end of a name, or read mochi in one famous old compound. For surnames, the strongest verified examples are Mochizuki (望月, full moon), Akizuki (秋月, autumn moon), Tsukino (月野, moon and field), Tsukioka (月岡, moon and hill), Tsukishima (月島, moon and island) and Kozuki (香月, fragrance and moon). For given names, the clearest examples are Mizuki in its writing 美月 (beauty and moon), Mitsuki in its writing 美月 (beautiful moon), Hazuki (葉月, leaf and moon), Yuzuki in writings such as 優月 (gentle moon) and 柚月 (yuzu citron and moon), Tsukiko (月子, moon child) and Tsuki itself (月, moon). Two cautions run through the whole article. First, the kanji carry the meaning, not the sound, so a name only means moon in the writing that contains 月. Second, two entries in the source material do not survive checking: Tsukamoto is normally written 塚本 and means mound and origin, not moon, and the claimed surname Getsuda could not be found in any name reference opened for this article. Both are corrected below.

The Japanese Word for Moon

Tsuki, getsu and gatsu: one kanji, three readings

The kanji 月 began as a drawing of a crescent moon, and dictionaries such as Jisho give its core meanings as moon and month. As a standalone word it is read tsuki and means the moon in the sky. Inside compounds it takes its Chinese derived readings: getsu in most compound words, as in mangetsu (満月, full moon) and getsuyobi (月曜日, Monday, literally moon day), and gatsu in the names of the calendar months, as in shigatsu, April. The double meaning is not a coincidence. Months were once counted by the moon, so the character that names the moon also names the time the moon measures. Name references also record special name readings for 月, among them zuki, the form readers meet most often, because the moon kanji closes a large share of Japanese moon names.

That zuki ending follows a regular sound change. When tsuki follows another element inside a name, its opening consonant voices, and tsuki becomes zuki: Mi-zuki, Ha-zuki, Yu-zuki. The character and the meaning have not changed. Only the sound has softened, as it also does in Mochizuki, where tsuki follows mochi and voices to zuki. A reader who knows this one pattern can decode most of the names in this article at sight.

A short moon vocabulary

A handful of everyday moon words sit behind the names, summarized in the table below. One boundary matters: gekko (月光) is moonlight, the light rather than the body itself, and belongs to the companion guide to Japanese names that mean moonlight. This article stays with the moon itself.

How Moon Meanings Appear in Japanese Names

The kanji carry the meaning, not the sound

A Japanese name is a sound plus a written form. Parents choose kanji whose meanings they want and fit them to a sound they like, and the written characters are what the name means. Change the kanji and the meaning changes while the spoken name stays identical. Moon names show this clearly, because the sound zuki can be written with the moon kanji or with characters that have nothing to do with the moon. Mizuki is the standard example: its most common writings include 美月 (beauty and moon) and 水月 (water and moon), but also 瑞希 (auspicious sign and hope), which contains no moon at all. An honest moon list therefore prints the kanji beside every meaning, as this article does throughout.

The month trap

Because 月 means month as well as moon, some moon looking names are really calendar names. Hazuki (葉月) is the traditional name for the eighth month of the old lunar calendar as well as a modern girls name, and its second character can point at the month rather than the moon in the sky. Satsuki works the same way as the old name for the fifth month. This does not disqualify these names, and name references lead with the leaf moon reading of Hazuki, but a careful chooser should know the calendar layer is there: the same character gives a name the moon overhead and a place in the turning year at once.

The sound trap: tsuka is not tsuki

The most expensive mistake in moon naming is a one letter confusion. Tsuki (月) means moon. Tsuka (塚) means a mound, a hillock or a burial mound, and it begins some of the most common surnames in Japan, including Tsukamoto, Tsukada and Tsukahara. The two words sound close to an English ear, but they are different words written with different characters. Any surname list that turns a tsuka name into a moon name has misread it.

Moon Surnames

Mochizuki (望月): the full moon surname

Mochizuki is the strongest moon surname in Japanese. As an ordinary word, mochizuki means the full moon, the moon on the fifteenth day of the lunar month, and dictionaries record it in exactly that sense. As a surname, written 望月, its first character 望 carries the senses of gazing at something distant, hoping and fullness, and reference accounts gloss the whole as full moon. It is an old name with clan history behind it, borne by a samurai family of Shinano province. For a fictional family, Mochizuki gives the full moon in a single, real, checkable surname.

Akizuki (秋月): autumn moon

Akizuki combines 秋 (autumn) with 月 (moon), and submitted surname references record it in exactly that writing and meaning, noting that it was the name of a samurai clan that once ruled part of what is now Miyazaki Prefecture. The autumn moon is not just any moon in Japanese culture. It is the moon of the harvest viewing season described below, the most praised moon of the year, so an Akizuki carries the finest moon of the calendar inside the family name.

Tsukino (月野) and Tsukioka (月岡): moon over field and hill

Tsukino joins 月 (moon) with 野, a field or open plain: the moon over the field. It is written with these characters in its best known modern use, as the family name of the heroine of Sailor Moon, a choice that works precisely because the surname is a real one built like other landscape surnames. Tsukioka joins 月 with 岡, a hill, and surname references record it with roughly 2,300 households, a reminder that moon surnames are uncommon but genuinely in use. Both names place the moon over a piece of ground, which is how landscape surnames were formed: the family was known by what its home looked like.

Tsukishima (月島) and Tsukiyama (月山)

Tsukishima joins 月 with 島, an island: moon island. The name is also familiar as a Tokyo district on reclaimed land in the bay, which gives it a real place association alongside the surname use. Tsukiyama joins 月 with 山, a mountain: moon mountain. One caution belongs with it. The same two characters, read Gassan, name a sacred mountain in Yamagata Prefecture, so the pairing is famous in both readings, and a reader checking the name should expect to meet the mountain first and the surname second.

Kozuki (香月) and Iwatsuki (岩月)

Two further recorded surnames close the list. Kozuki, written 香月, joins 香 (fragrance) with 月 (moon), at roughly 5,700 households, one of the more widely held moon surnames. Iwatsuki, written 岩月, joins 岩 (rock) with 月, at roughly 3,400 households: the moon over rock. Neither is common, and that is the honest shape of this category. Genuine moon surnames exist, they are beautiful, and they are few. Lists offering dozens are usually recycling given names, place names and invented compounds, a pattern readers will also meet in the companion guide to Japanese surnames meaning night.

Beautiful Moon Names and Moon Names for Girls

Readers often ask what the Japanese word for a beautiful moon is. There is no single such word, and that is the honest answer. Utsukushii tsuki is just the ordinary phrase, beautiful moon. What Japanese naming actually offers is better: real names in which the beauty kanji 美 sits directly beside the moon kanji, so that beautiful moon is not a description of the name but the name itself.

Mizuki (美月): beautiful moon, with one caution

Mizuki is the most famous beautiful moon name in Japanese, and name references give its most common writings as 美月 (beauty and moon), 瑞希 (auspicious sign and hope), 水月 (water and moon) and 光月 (light and moon). In the 美月 writing, Mizuki is quite literally beautiful moon, and that writing is common enough that the claim needs no special pleading. The caution is the 瑞希 writing, which is equally common and contains no moon: a Mizuki written that way is a hope name. The 水月 writing pairs water with the moon, the moon reflected on water, and is the bridge to the companion guide to Japanese names meaning water. Mizuki is used mainly for girls and occasionally for boys. Choose the 美月 writing and the beautiful moon meaning is secure.

Mitsuki (美月, 望月): the same writing, a different sound

Mitsuki shows how flexible the moon ending is. Name references for girls give its most common writings as 美月 (beautiful moon), 光希 (light and hope) and 明希 (bright and hope), so a girl named Mitsuki in the 美月 writing shares her written name with Mizuki and differs only in how it is said. JapaneseNames.info also records 望月, the full moon word usually read mochizuki, as a Mitsuki writing. The meaning follows the kanji both times.

Hazuki (葉月): leaf moon

Hazuki combines 葉 (leaf) with 月 (moon, month), and it carries the calendar layer openly, because Hazuki is also the traditional name for August in the old lunar calendar. As a modern name it is used mainly for girls, and its image is of high summer turning toward autumn: leaves under a late moon. For parents, the dual reading is a feature rather than a flaw, provided it is chosen knowingly.

Yuzuki (優月, 柚月, 結月): gentle moon, citron moon, binding moon

Yuzuki is a modern name, popular since the 2000s, whose moon writings show how much freedom parents have once the moon kanji is fixed in place. Name references record 柚月, joining 柚 (yuzu, the fragrant winter citron) with the moon, for both girls and boys, with use leaning toward girls, and also record 悠月 (leisurely or distant, and moon) and 優月 (gentle, and moon). A documented naming account describes parents choosing 結月, joining 結 (to tie or bind) with the moon, because a supermoon had shone on their first date. The sound stayed Yuzuki, the moon stayed in place, and the first character carried the family’s own story.

Tsukiko (月子) and Tsuki (月)

Tsukiko joins 月 (moon) with 子 (child), the classic closing character of traditional girls names: moon child. It is a clear, old fashioned name whose meaning cannot be misread, because the moon kanji stands first and no common alternative writing displaces it. Tsuki goes further and uses the moon word alone. Name references describe Tsuki, written with the single kanji 月, as a rare and atmospheric name, used mainly for girls and occasionally for boys. It is the boldest choice in this article and the simplest: the name is the word, and the word is the moon.

Kaguya (輝夜): a moon name by story, not by kanji

Kaguya needs honest labeling. Its classical writing, 輝夜, means radiance and night, and contains no moon kanji. By story, though, no name in this article is more lunar. Kaguya is the heroine of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, the oldest surviving Japanese narrative tale, in which a tiny princess is found inside a glowing bamboo stalk and at last reveals that she belongs to the people of the moon and must return to the Capital of the Moon. Name references treat Kaguya as a classical girls name drawn directly from that tale, with the alternative writing 月姫, moon princess, making the connection explicit. Kaguya belongs in a moon article as a moon associated name, not on a list of names whose kanji mean moon.

Moon Names for Boys and Unisex Names

Readers looking for a traditionally masculine Japanese name that means moon should be told the truth early: there are very few, and the moon element in modern Japanese naming leans feminine. What boys naming offers instead is a set of genuinely unisex moon names.

The verified unisex options are Tsuki (月), recorded for boys as well as girls with the single moon kanji as its dominant writing; Mizuki, used occasionally for boys though mainly for girls; Mitsuki, which name references treat as unisex, though a boy’s Mitsuki more often takes writings such as 光希 (light and hope), so the moon writing must be chosen deliberately; and Yuzuki, recorded for boys in writings including 柚月 and 優月. Beyond those, the moon appears in longer poetic compounds in fiction rather than in the standard modern boys repertoire. A writer naming a male character can use Tsuki, Mizuki or a Yuzuki writing with a clear conscience, because each is attested for boys. A list offering a dozen rugged masculine moon names is inventing them.

Names Often Listed by Mistake

Tsukamoto: a mound name, not a moon name

Some moon surname lists include Tsukamoto, reading it as moon origin. It is not. Surname references give the standard writing of Tsukamoto as 塚本, joining 塚 (mound, grave, tumulus) with 本 (root, origin, book), at roughly 38,000 households, one of the most common surnames in this whole discussion. That reading confuses tsuka, mound, with tsuki, moon, the sound trap described above. Tsukamoto is a fine and historic surname. It means the base of the mound, and it has been removed from the moon list rather than carried on a resemblance.

Getsuda: a claimed surname that could not be verified

A claimed surname Getsuda circulates, described as moon field in a formal reading. No surname Getsuda appears in the name references opened for this article, and the construction itself is suspect: getsu is the compound reading of 月 and does not combine with the voiced field reading da to form a standard surname reading. A surname written 月田 would be expected to read in the Tsuki pattern, not the Getsu pattern. Getsuda is therefore dropped entirely, and recorded here so that its absence is a checked decision rather than an oversight.

Tsukiyo: a beautiful word, not an established name

Tsukiyo (月夜) is a real and lovely word meaning a moonlit night, and dictionaries record it in that sense. It is sometimes presented as a name for a character of either gender. The references opened for this article support the word, not a common given name, so Tsukiyo is treated here as vocabulary. A fiction writer may still borrow it knowingly. It should not be presented to parents as an established Japanese given name.

The Moon in Japanese Culture and Naming

Tsukimi: viewing the autumn moon

No account of moon naming makes sense without tsukimi, moon viewing. Tsukimi, also called otsukimi, is the autumn custom of honoring the full moon, centered on the fifteenth night of the eighth month of the traditional calendar, jugoya, with a second viewing on the thirteenth night of the ninth month, jusan’ya. The days normally fall in September and October. The tradition dates to the Heian period, when aristocrats influenced by the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival gathered to compose poetry under the moon and watch its reflection on water. Tsukimi practice displays pampas grass, susuki, and offers seasonal produce and white rice dumplings, tsukimi dango, in gratitude for the harvest.

The rabbit on the moon

Where Western folklore sees a man in the moon, Japanese folklore sees a rabbit. The National Diet Library’s calendar material explains that the dark markings on the full moon have long been read in Japan as a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar to make mochi, rice cakes. Museum accounts connect the image to a tale preserved in the Konjaku Monogatari collection, in which a rabbit, having nothing to feed a hungry traveler, offers itself, and is honored by being placed on the moon. Framed as folklore, which is what it is, the rabbit explains the rabbits beside moons on autumn goods and the rabbit shaped sweets at moon viewing. The companion guide to Japanese names that mean shadow covers the darker side of the same night sky.

Tsukuyomi and Kaguya: the moon in myth and story

Two figures carry the moon in Japanese story. Tsukuyomi, also spelled Tsukiyomi, is the moon kami of Shinto tradition, counted by Britannica among the three most important deities born from the purification of the creator Izanagi, alongside Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and Susanoo, the storm god, and tasked with ruling the night. Britannica also records the account in which Amaterasu, angered after Tsukuyomi killed the food goddess, refused to face him again, separating sun and moon. Kaguya, met above, is the moon’s exile rather than its ruler. Between the god who rules the night and the princess who longs for the moon, Japanese story gives the moon both authority and longing, and names draw on both registers.

Modern readers meet the same moon in quieter practices, in guides to new moon and full moon planning rituals and full moon journaling prompts. The moon has been Japan’s calendar, mirror and companion for over a thousand years.

Pronunciation Guide

Japanese pronunciation is regular once a reader knows that each vowel keeps one sound: a as in father, i as in machine, u as in flute, e as in met, and o as in note. Tsuki is pronounced tsoo-kee, with the opening ts sounded as one quick beat. Mizuki is mee-zoo-kee, Mitsuki is mee-tsoo-kee, and Hazuki is hah-zoo-kee. Yuzuki is yoo-zoo-kee. Tsukiko is tsoo-kee-ko. Mochizuki is moh-chee-zoo-kee, Akizuki is ah-kee-zoo-kee, and Tsukino is tsoo-kee-noh. Tsukioka is tsoo-kee-oh-kah, Tsukishima is tsoo-kee-shee-mah, and Tsukiyama is tsoo-kee-yah-mah. Kozuki is koh-zoo-kee, Iwatsuki is ee-wah-tsoo-kee, Kaguya is kah-goo-yah, and Tsukuyomi is tsoo-koo-yoh-mee.

Choosing a Moon Name

For a real child

Start with the writing, not the sound. Choose the kanji that carry the moon meaning you intend, then check whether that writing is the common one or a rarity. Mizuki is the model case: the beautiful moon claim is secure in 美月 and absent in 瑞希. Prefer names whose moon meaning survives their most standard writing, such as Tsukiko, Tsuki in its single kanji form, or Hazuki, over names whose moon meaning depends on an unusual spelling. Say the full name aloud with the family surname, in Japanese order and in Western order if the child will live in both worlds. Check that the characters are on the permitted name kanji lists if the birth will be registered in Japan, and ask Japanese speakers how the name reads in real life.

For a character or a story name

Fiction allows the full register, including the surnames, which are the strongest material in this article for a writer. Mochizuki roots a family in full moon and clan history at once. Akizuki gives an autumn moon and a samurai past. Tsukino and Tsukishima place a family under the moon over a field or an island. The folklore layer is equally usable: a Kaguya carries exile and return, and a rabbit anywhere near a moon will be read by Japanese audiences exactly as intended. The one rule that still applies is honesty inside the work’s own frame. A name presented as a real Japanese family name should be one, which is why Tsukamoto, a mound name, will quietly wrong foot any story that presents it as a moon name. Where hope belongs in a name’s story, the 瑞希 writing of Mizuki and the companion guide to Japanese names that mean hope are the honest route to it.

A short checklist

First, write the name in kanji and confirm each character’s meaning in a dictionary such as Jisho. Second, confirm the name itself, in that writing, in a name reference, and note whether the moon writing is the common one or a rarity. Third, check the opening syllable letter by letter: tsuki is moon, tsuka is mound. Fourth, check the same sound for a more common non moon writing, as Mizuki, Mitsuki and Yuzuki all have. Fifth, if a website gives a moon meaning with no kanji, drop the claim however attractive it sounds.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Japanese word for moon?

Tsuki, written 月. The same kanji is read getsu in most compounds, as in mangetsu, full moon, and getsuyobi, Monday, and gatsu in the names of the months. It means month as well as moon, because months were once counted by the moon.

What is a Japanese surname that means moon?

Mochizuki (望月, full moon) is the strongest example, followed by Akizuki (秋月, autumn moon), Tsukino (月野, moon and field), Tsukioka (月岡, moon and hill), Tsukishima (月島, moon and island), Kozuki (香月, fragrance and moon) and Iwatsuki (岩月, rock and moon). Genuine moon surnames are few, and each one above is recorded in name references in the writing shown.

Does Tsukamoto mean moon?

No. Tsukamoto is normally written 塚本, joining 塚, a mound or hillock, with 本, origin. It is often misread as tsuki, moon, but the character is tsuka, mound. It is a common and historic surname with no moon in it.

What is a beautiful moon name in Japanese?

Mizuki written 美月 is the clearest answer: beauty and moon, in one of the name’s most common writings. Mitsuki shares the same 美月 writing. The caution is that Mizuki also has a common writing, 瑞希 (auspicious sign and hope), with no moon in it, so the beautiful moon meaning belongs to the 美月 writing specifically.

Is Hazuki a moon name or a month name?

Both. Hazuki (葉月) joins leaf with the kanji 月, which means moon and month, and Hazuki is also the traditional name for the eighth month of the old lunar calendar. Name references lead with the leaf moon reading for the modern girls name, and the calendar layer is part of the name’s history rather than a disqualification.

Is Kaguya a moon name?

By story, yes; by kanji, no. Kaguya’s classical writing 輝夜 means radiance and night. The name belongs to the princess of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, who comes from the Capital of the Moon and returns to it, so the lunar association is real and deep. It is a moon associated name, not a name whose characters mean moon.

How can I check a Japanese moon name claim myself?

Demand the kanji, then check each character in a dictionary such as Jisho and check the full name in a name reference that prints its writings. If 月 is not in the written form, the moon claim is not supported. Watch the opening syllable as well: tsuki is moon, while tsuka is a mound.

Sources & references

• Jisho.org, kanji entry for 月. Kun reading tsuki, glossed moon, month and moonlight; on reading getsu; the compound 望月 (mochizuki) glossed full moon, the moon on the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar; and the recorded name readings for 月, including zuki. Built on the JMdict and KANJIDIC projects.
• Jisho.org search results for 月 compounds, as surfaced with the kanji entry. 月夜 (tsukiyo) as moonlit night and 満月 (mangetsu) as full moon, supporting the vocabulary table and the treatment of Tsukiyo as a word.
• JapaneseNames.info, first name Mizuki (girls). The most common writings 美月 (beautiful and moon), 瑞希 (auspicious and hope), 水月 (water and moon) and 光月 (light and moon), and the note that the name is used mainly for girls and occasionally for boys.
• JapaneseNames.info, first name Mitsuki (girls and boys listings). Girls writings 美月 (beautiful moon), 光希 (light and hope) and 明希 (bright and hope); the boys listing's pattern of light and hope writings, supporting the caution that a boy's moon writing must be chosen deliberately.
• JapaneseNames.info, first name Yuzuki (girls and boys listings). 柚月 (yuzu citron and moon) in both listings; 悠月 (leisurely and moon) and 優月 (gentle and moon) in the boys listing; and the note that the name has grown in popularity since the 2000s.
• JapaneseNames.info, first name Tsuki (girls and boys listings). The single kanji 月 (moon) as the most common and dominant writing, the description of Tsuki as a rare and atmospheric name, and its use mainly for girls and occasionally for boys.
• JapaneseNames.info, first name Kaguya. The classical writing 輝夜 (radiance and night), the alternative writing 月姫 (moon princess), and the account of the name's origin in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, whose heroine returns to her home on the moon.
• JapaneseNames.info, surname search results including the moon kanji. 月岡 (Tsukioka, moon and hill, approximately 2,300 households), 香月 (Kozuki, fragrance and moon, approximately 5,700 households), 岩月 (Iwatsuki, rock and moon, approximately 3,400 households), and 塚本 (Tsukamoto, mound and origin, approximately 38,000 households) with 塚 glossed mound, grave, tumulus.
• Behind the Name, submitted Japanese surnames. Akizuki (秋月, autumn and moon), recorded as the name of a samurai clan that ruled part of what is now Miyazaki Prefecture. The site states that submitted names are user contributed and their accuracy cannot be guaranteed, and this entry is used as a cross check alongside the kanji glosses above.
• Names.org, Mochizuki surname account, cross checked against Jisho. 望月 read Mochizuki, glossed full moon or looking at the moon, with Heian period records and a samurai clan of Shinano province. Used as a cross check only; the full moon gloss rests on Jisho.
• National Diet Library, Japan, The Japanese Calendar: Rabbit with mortar. The dark part of the full moon read since ancient times as a rabbit pounding rice to make mochi in a mortar and mallet, an image described as very familiar to the Japanese. Supports the moon rabbit section, framed as folklore.
• Seattle Art Museum, SAM Stories: Object of the Week, Fireman's Coat. Tsukimi held on the fifteenth to eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month, celebrated with pampas grass and mochi, and the moon rabbit account traced to a tale in the Konjaku Monogatari, in which the rabbit offers itself to a hungry traveler and is placed on the moon.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Tsukiyomi. The moon god Tsukiyomi among the three most important deities born from Izanagi's purification, alongside Amaterasu and Susanoo, tasked with ruling the night, and the account of Amaterasu's anger after the killing of the food goddess separating sun and moon.
• Seattle Art Museum, SAM Stories: Object of the Week, Fireman's Coat, tsukimi account. Tsukimi held on the fifteenth to eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month, celebrated with pampas grass and mochi.
• The Seattle Star, The Business of Being Named in Japan. A documented parental naming account in which the name Yuzuki was written 結月, binding and moon, chosen because a supermoon shone on the parents' first date, and background on how Japanese parents choose kanji for a chosen sound.