indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Gender Masculine & Feminine
Usage Japanese, Popular Culture
Scripts 武蔵(Japanese Kanji) むさし(Japanese Hiragana) ムサシ(Japanese Katakana)
Meaning & History
This name combines 武 (bu, mu, take.shi) meaning "military, warrior" with 蔵 (sou, zou, osa.meru, kaku.reru, kura, sashi) meaning "own, possess, storehouse", the combination also being read as Takezō.Musashi is classified as a hyakkanna (百官名), a court rank-style name that samurai used to announce oneself and give himself authority, since it comes from the name of a pre-Meiji Period (1868-1912) province where Tōkyō (formerly known as Edo) is located, thus is used for a provincial governor, mainly on the lines of Musashi-no-kami (武蔵守).
There are two theories to the name's etymology with one (likely a folk etymology) being a corruption of 身狭下 (Musa-shimo) (the upper section of Musa, 身狭上 (Musa-gami), corrupted into 相模 (Sagami)). The other theory suggests that it is borrowed from Ainu, two possibilities being mun-sar-i(hi) which would mean "marsh/wetland of weeds/inedible or otherwise useless plants," and mun-sa-shir meaning "nettle plain land," both probably making some sense since the province was located in the middle of the Kantō plain.One male bearer of this name was swordsman Musashi Miyamoto (宮本 武蔵) (1584-1645), his childhood name being Bennosuke (弁之助). He won a duel against Kojirō Sasaki who died shortly after.
One female (fictional) bearer of this name is more commonly known around the world as Jessie, who is a villain in Pokémon (written as ムサシ).Despite it being used on a female character in Pokémon, in real life, it is only used for males.
There are two theories to the name's etymology with one (likely a folk etymology) being a corruption of 身狭下 (Musa-shimo) (the upper section of Musa, 身狭上 (Musa-gami), corrupted into 相模 (Sagami)). The other theory suggests that it is borrowed from Ainu, two possibilities being mun-sar-i(hi) which would mean "marsh/wetland of weeds/inedible or otherwise useless plants," and mun-sa-shir meaning "nettle plain land," both probably making some sense since the province was located in the middle of the Kantō plain.One male bearer of this name was swordsman Musashi Miyamoto (宮本 武蔵) (1584-1645), his childhood name being Bennosuke (弁之助). He won a duel against Kojirō Sasaki who died shortly after.
One female (fictional) bearer of this name is more commonly known around the world as Jessie, who is a villain in Pokémon (written as ムサシ).Despite it being used on a female character in Pokémon, in real life, it is only used for males.