Hoshi
[hoʊʃi]Hoshi is Japanese for star — 星. It is also a near-homophone of hōshi, a Buddhist priest, and it is the word behind Tanabata, the Star Festival, which celebrates two stars meeting once a year.
Temperament
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Star, and the festival built on two of them
Hoshi is 星, the ordinary Japanese word for a star. It is a common element in names and it is not gendered, which is why our own listing files it as unisex — the right answer for a word that simply names a thing.
The word has a festival attached to it. Tanabata, 七夕, is the Star Festival, also called Hoshimatsuri, 星祭り, and it celebrates the meeting of two deities, Orihime and Hikoboshi, represented by the stars Vega and Altair. The Milky Way separates them, and they are permitted to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. The date varies by region — the first festivities begin on 7 July, and the rest fall between July and August, following the older lunar reckoning. The festival came to Japan from the Chinese Qixi festival and was introduced in 755, by the Empress Kōken, under an older name that translates as the Festival to Plead for Skills. It is the reason the Japanese word for star carries a warmer and more specific feeling than the English one does.
The homophone next door
Japanese is full of homophones — words that sound the same and are told apart only by their characters — and hoshi is one of the busier ones. 星 is a star. 法師, read hōshi, is a Buddhist priest or monk, near enough in sound that the difference rests almost entirely on the length of the first vowel and on the writing.
There are others. 干し, hoshi, means dried, as in hoshi-imo, dried sweet potato. For a dog none of this matters, since nobody writes a name down before shouting it. It matters only if you want to explain the name to a Japanese speaker, because the character is the entire explanation.
Hoshi on a dog
HOH-shee. The English instinct is to lengthen the first vowel, and Japanese does not: both syllables are short and level, with no stress worth the name. Said the English way it sounds pleasant; said the Japanese way it sounds precise. Either works, but a dog learns one version, so decide before you start rather than a month in.
The shape is good for calling. Two short syllables, a clear h to open with, and a long -ee at the end that can be stretched — Hoshieee travels a long way. It is unusual in English-speaking countries without being hard to say, and it does not collide with any of the common pet names.
Common questions
What does Hoshi mean?
Star. It is the ordinary Japanese word, 星, and it is not gendered — our listing files it as unisex, which is accurate for a word of this kind.
How do you pronounce Hoshi?
HOH-shee, with both syllables short and level. English speakers tend to lengthen the first vowel, which Japanese does not do.
Sources
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