nanori means A Japanese reading of a kanji character that is used for names of people or places, but that is otherwise a non-standard reading for that character.
Why “nanori” is a great word
A specialized reading of a kanji character reserved for Japanese personal or place names, diverging from its standard pronunciations, from Japanese 名乗り (nanori), from 名 (na, "name") + 乗り (nori, "riding" or "declaring"), from the verb 名乗る (nanoru, "to declare one's name"). Unlike the on'yomi, which anchors compound words in borrowed history, or the kun'yomi, which clothes a character in vernacular meaning, the nanori is a solitary, idiosyncratic key that unlocks only a single identity. It is the whispered "Kou" for the character 光 (light) in a given name, the unexpected "Suke" for 助 (help) in a surname, or the local "Be" for 部 (section) in a village—a private dialect mapping sound to soul, where a character steps out of public meaning and becomes, simply, someone.
Etymology
From Japanese 名乗り (nanori, literally “name + riding”).
noun
- A Japanese reading of a kanji character that is used for names of people or places, but that is otherwise a non-standard reading for that character.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- norito 51% match — A liturgical text or ritual incantation in Shinto, usually addressed to a specific kami. vs nanori →
- amanori 50% match — Porphyra seaweed used as food in Japan; laver. vs nanori →
- jukujikun 49% match — A Japanese word whose kanji spelling conveys the meaning based on the individual characters, but whose reading is not directly related to the spelling. vs nanori →
- okurigana 49% match — In the Japanese language, the kana which follow a stem written with kanji, which record how that stem is inflected, and guides recognition of the appropriate kun'yomi reading (word stem associated with the kanji); for example, く (ku) and かべる (kaberu) in 浮(う)く (uk-u, “to float”, intransitive) and 浮(う)かべる (uk-aberu, “to float”, transitive), or む (mu) and きる (kiru) in 生(う)む (umu, “to birth”) and 生(い)きる (ikiru, “to live”). Perhaps analogous to -st, -nd in English 1st (first), 2nd (second). vs nanori →
- northron 48% match — A person from the North (of some country, region, etc); a Northerner. vs nanori →
- funori 47% match — A kind of glue produced from agar. vs nanori →
- aonori 47% match — Synonym of green laver. vs nanori →
- nobori 46% match — A type of Japanese banner, originally used to identify waring factions, but now used as advertising etc. vs nanori →