Akihito as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Akihito

What is the meaning of the name Akihito ?

The baby name Akihito is a boy name , 4 syllables long and is pronounced ah-kee-hee-toh.

Akihito is Japanese in Origin.

Akihito is a Japanese masculine given name, written in kana as あきひと. Its root language is Japanese, though its written forms use kanji inherited from Chinese script. A securely attested early form is 顕仁, the personal name of the 12th-century emperor later known as Sutoku. The name is morphologically Aki + hito: aki may be represented by 明 or 昭 bright, 暁 dawn, 顕 manifest, 彰 clear/manifest, or other characters, while hito is often 仁 benevolence, humanity or 人 person. Thus 明仁 gives the literal sense bright benevolence.

The name belongs to the Japanese personal-name system in which several kanji spellings can share one reading. It became internationally familiar through Emperor Akihito, written 明仁, who reigned from 1989 to 2019 in the Heisei era and abdicated in 2019. Earlier imperial use appears with Sutoku’s 顕仁. Modern bearers include athletes, musicians, shogi players, and artists; Akito is a shorter related form.