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A Japanese given name often has several way to be read, and you can not be 100% sure before the person tells you or see their email address.

For instance, 貴子 can be read "Kiko", but 90% of the time it is "Takako".

I am looking for a website (or Android webapp) that quickly gives the most probable way to read a contemporary Japanese name.

Requirements:

  • Based on the current Japanese population,
  • Gratis.

Bonus if it gives percentage, for instance:
貴子: Takako (90%), Kiko (5%), etc
This should not be difficult as databases of names popularity are readily available.

Please note that usual kanji->kana/romaji transliteration tools (like the ones I maintain) do not handle names, outputting readings that are never used for given names.

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I have found http://kanji.reader.bz to be rather adapted to this use. Enter the kanji given name in the input field, press the button and you get a list of possible pronunciations:

Japanese name pronunciation search engine

Merit:

  • Seems to be based on current names
  • Limited to people names, so results are not polluted by common words.

Demerits:

  • Not indication of how popular a name is.
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The one that was introduced by my 先輩 since the first time I learnt Japanese 6 years ago is WWWJDIC. It's so famous that a lot of online dictionaries I found use the database from WWWJDIC

By default it'll search in the general dictionary (EDICT) but you can switch to the Japanese name dictionary (ENAMDICT) for more detailed information about names

WWWJDIC main page

For example for 貴子 it gives the below answers in decreasing order of usage

【たかこ】 (f) Takako 【きえこ】 (f) Kieko 【あつこ】 (f) Atsuko 【あやこ】 (f) Ayako 【きこ】 (f) Kiko 【たかお】 (f) Takao 【たかね】 (f) Takane 【のりこ】 (f) Noriko 【みつこ】 (f) Mitsuko 【よしこ】 (f) Yoshiko

It isn't limited to person names but also place names

The Japanese Names (ENAMDICT) file which contains Japanese proper names; place-names, surnames and given names. The basic format of the ENAMDICT file is the same as the EDICT file, however for ease of use, the version used by the WWWJDIC server has been modified to include all the possible readings of a name within the one entry, with the readings approximately in frequency-of-use order.

http://nihongo.monash.edu/wwwjdicinf.html

Another dictionary I often use is jisho.org

For example 貴子 also gives the above 10 pronunciations

Some others I've just found

As a side note I really like WWWJDIC's Text Glossing feature which is sometimes more useful than a normal web translator. However for multi-radical Kanji searches I find jisho.org much better

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  • Could you please provide a direct link to WWWJDIC's name search? Thanks! Unfortunately there is no numeric indication of how popular a name is, but great to know that they are at least sorted by popularity. – Nicolas Raoul♦ Jun 25 '18 at 1:53
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    @NicolasRaoul there's no direct link available, you have to select the dictionary while searching from the main page. I've given a demonstration image – phuclv Jun 25 '18 at 2:00

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