曜as a boy's name

[tōkai devotee]

I met a boy the other day and his name was Yoh. I said that I hadn't heard that name much and asked him what Kanji he used. He said this one.. 曜　I looked it up in my Kanji dictionary later and found it means day of the week as in 日曜日etc. Does it have this meaning when used as a name? Sounds odd in English to call a kid, "day of the week"! Does it have another meaning? My dictionary doesn't give any other meanings.

[Infidel]

Considering that I've met guys named Friday and girls named Wednesday, it doesn't seem so strange to me. Although the girls usually go by Winnie.

[Shirasagi]

Originally it meant "luminary".

[Yudan Taiteki]

Plus, you can't use 曜 alone to mean "day of the week"; it always has to be combined with something. So that's like saying that "rob" is an odd name because it appears in "robber".

[Mike Cash]

Infidel wrote:
Considering that I've met guys named Friday

Joe?

and girls named Wednesday

Did they have brothers named Pugsley?

[Infidel]

I forgot about those. Yea, I see those names in movies too

[tōkai devotee]

Yudan Taiteki wrote:
Plus, you can't use 曜 alone to mean "day of the week".

So, what does it mean when used alone as a name???

[Yudan Taiteki]

It doesn't mean anything. It's a name. The kanji was probably chosen because of its association with bright/sunny/luminous (as Josh said).

[hungryhotei]

Here is the meaning section of the entry for 曜　from 漢字減. I'm not sure of your Japanese ability but hopefully you should be able to get the gist and so a better understanding of this kanji and why it is used to mean day of the week.

1)かがやく。光が高く目だってかがやく。てかてかと光る。
２）ひかり。目だってかがやく光。
3)日・月と火・水・木・金・土の星を七曜という。かがやく天体のこと。
４）一週間を七曜に当てはめ、日曜・月曜などという。

[tōkai devotee]

どうもありがとう、hungryさん。よく分かりました！