郎

male name suffix; counter for sons

Kanji 1936

This kanji lets us in on the private lives of celebrities such as baseball player Ichiro Suzuki. When a Japanese man's name ends in -郎, it tells us about his family composition! Although 郎 has strong connections to goodness, it helps us deride men as jerks and "bad boys." On the flip side, words such as 太郎 enable us to speak of "the greatest," as in enormously tall trees.

Revision history: 

Sept. 19, 2012: Added 8 photos to pp. 6, 8, and 12–15.