Kazuo

Kazuo joins kazu, most often written with the character for one or harmony, to o meaning man or male. The result reads loosely as first-born man or harmonious man, a name that was enormously popular for Japanese boys born in the early and mid-twentieth century. Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro has carried the name into global literature, and filmmaker Kazuo Hara has made it familiar in documentary circles. Two broad vowels flank the central z, giving it an open, slightly archaic sound in contemporary Japan. It has the lived-in quality of a grandfather's name now gently returning. Steady and dignified.