‡ Rabbit of the Moon? ‡

well, maybe not.
I'm not fluent in japanese, so all of the information I'm giving here is from other websites, and after many hours of careful searching, I believe I have found a conclusion to all the name confusion. Shall we begin?

There is a great misunderstanding among sailor moon fans the Tsukino Usagi literally translates into "Rabbit of the Moon." I must admit, I was one of these people. Usagi's name is meant as a pun though, it only sounds like "Rabbit of the moon," but the kanji used to represent Usagi's name mean something a little different. If it did literally mean rabbit of the moon, then where is the pun? Well, as I've found out, "no" can mean several things in Japan. You know how in english we have words that sound alike, but have different meanings? (examples are two and to, there and their, week and weak) In Japan, "no" can mean of, or domestic/field, and the kanji used to represent "no" in Usagi's name is domestic/field. So, I guess If you want to get super technical about her name, it mean's something along the lines of Domestic Moon Rabbit. One of the sites i came across described it as meaning something like "Moon rabbit domesticated by earth." I guess that's where the field and domestic part of her name take on new meaning.

Now like I said, I can't read the japanese language. If you are interested in learning more about Usagi's name for yourself, Here are two great links complete with the actual Kanji and more thorough explainations.



Link 1

Link 2