_O-Bun_ "Composition."
_O-Fude_ "Writing-Brush."
_O-Fumi_ "Letter."
_O-Kaku_ "Writing."
_O-Uta_ "Poem."
Names relating to number are very common, but also very interesting.
They may be loosely divided into two sub-classes,--names indicating the
order or the time of birth, and names of felicitation. Such _yobina_ as
_Ichi_, _San_, _Roku_, _Hachi_ usually refer to the order of birth; but
sometimes they record the date of birth. For example, I know a person
called O-Roku, who received this name, not because she was the sixth
child born in the family, but because she entered this world upon the
sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth Meiji. It will be observed
that the numbers Two, Five, and Nine are not represented in the list:
the mere idea of such names as _O-Ni_, _O-Go_, or _O-Ku_ seems to a
Japanese absurd. I do not know exactly why,--unless it be that they
suggest unpleasant puns. The place of _O-Ni_ is well supplied, however,
by the name _O-Tsugi_ ("Next"), which will be found in a subsequent
list. Names signifying numbers ranging from eighty to a thousand, and
upward, are names of felicitation. They express the wish that the bearer
may live to a prodigious age, or that her posterity may flourish through
the centuries.