Naoki

Naoki pairs nao, often written with the character for honest or straight, with ki for tree or radiance, yielding a meaning close to honest tree or straightforward brilliance. The name carries extra literary cachet through the Naoki Prize, Japan's major popular-fiction award named for the novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Author Naoki Higashida, whose memoir The Reason I Jump was translated into English by David Mitchell, has made the name known to international readers. Two firm syllables run uprightly, the opening nao broad, the ki landing with certainty. A name that sounds like what it means: plainspoken, upright, unshowy. Direct and warm.