I hope it's okay to ask this here. Need help naming a Japanese character.
I’m kind of embarrassed to ask this question and I hope it’s appropriate to post it here. I can’t think of a better place to ask it.
I need help naming a character for a screenplay.
I’m in the early stages of writing a screenplay about a Japanese-American woman in her late teens or early twenties who decides to practice Zen Buddhism, and it’s about her spiritual journey. This is a story I’ve wanted to tell for a couple of years but in January it began to come together more fully.
It’s really important to have a first name for her so I can start thinking of her as an actual person.
She was born in Japan in the early 2000s and her parents moved to the United States when she was about ten years old, so she speaks fluent Japanese and English.
Her mother passed away when she was fifteen and her father has raised her since. They are very close but of course she misses her mother terribly.
She’s slightly rebellious but not obnoxious. She has a strong life force but is a bit impatient with people. She’s easily bored because she’s very curious and she’s several steps ahead of most of her friends. She’s extremely intelligent but has a restless spirit and a lot of questions about the purpose of life.
Are there any Japanese female names that might possibly capture some of these qualities?
Perhaps a name that is not too common (but common is okay too) but also not extremely rare?
I know this is a strange question, but it’s driving me crazy not to have named her yet. I know I could research Japanese names online, but it’s not the same as asking people who really understand Japan and Japanese culture and the cultural implications of names.
Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated! Also, if this question is not appropriate for this forum (my apologies), please let me know and I will delete it, or perhaps the moderator can delete it.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Possible meanings
As with many Japanese names, Keiko can be written using a number of different kanji. Some of the most common ways[citation needed] of writing Keiko (and the most representative meanings of the respective kanji) are:
恵子 — "lucky/blessed child"
敬子 — "respectful child"
景子 — "sunlight/view/scenic child"
桂子 — "katsura tree child"
圭子 — "square jewel child"
慶子 — "happy child"
啓子 — "open (one's eyes)/express/spring (season) child"
硅子 — "silicon child"
The suffix ko (子
implies the name is female and the name is almost never given to males. Much less commonly, Keiko can also be written as 螢子, 輕子, or 軽子.
Other ways to spell the name include the following:
Keiko
稽古 — "Practice/Training"
Keiko can also be written in hiragana (けいこ and katakana (ケイコ
Keikō
傾向 — "Trend"
蛍光 — "Fluorescence"
経口 — "Oral"
携行 — "Carrying"
鶏口 — "Chicken Mouth"
景仰 — "Background"
挂甲 — "Shell"
Keikō can also be written in hiragana (けいこう and katakana (ケイコウ
One of my regrets will always be not having learned Japanese, though I tried to teach myself from books as a child. The characters are so beautiful. (I have a collection of monster and UltraMan books from Japan from childhood that are of course in Japanese and I never learned how to read them. 
)
