Hi, it’s Junko from Japan. Uraraka Ochaco’s URARAKA means “the day with clear sky and warm sunlight” in Japanese. It suits her cheerful character! The author of My Hero Academia says her name is his masterpiece. Her name has some tricks in its writing. In this post, I’ll explain the secret of Ochaco’s name!
Family Name URARAKA
URARAKA is an irregular reading for this combination of Kanji letters. The first Kanji represents “bright beauty” and the second one is for “day” or “sun.” These make the meaning of “pleasant and peaceful weather.”
First Name OCHACO
OCHA = green tea, tea
CO = child
O is written in Hiragana letter. It’s a prefix to say something in a polite way. CHA stands for “tea”. CO is a symbol for “child” and it’s a typical suffix for girls’ names in Japan. So literally, OCHACO represents “tea girl” and it’s a very manga-ish name.
For your information, when we hear the word “tea”, we first think of hot green tea served in a Japanese tea cup.
Green tea is a popular drink among the elderly. Therefore in Japanese manga and anime, you’ll see many scenes in which an old couple enjoys chatting over green tea. So the combination of the word URARAKA (sunny) and CHA (tea) gives leisurely and warm impressions.
In the official fan book of My Hero Academia, Ochaco’s personality is described as ITSUMO URARAKA, meaning “always positive.”
The Secret Behind URAVITY
In Japanese, each Kanji character has several ways of reading. URARAKA also can be read as URARA BI. Did you notice?
URA (RA) + BI + TEA = URABITEA
That makes Ochaco’s hero name, Uravity! Wow! Her full name is the origin of her hero name. It’s a kind of wordplay and I can see this kind of playing in other names in My Hero Academia. Check out these posts if you’re interested!
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