Mei (Japanese: メイ, Mandarin: 美) is a feminine given name used in various cultures, particularly Japan and China.

Written forms

Mei can be written using different

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

characters and can mean: *, "sprout, garment" *, "sprout, reliant" *, "bright, reliant" *, "ring or echo" The name can also be written in

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

. Mei can also be written using different Chinese characters: *美, "beautiful" *梅, " Chinese plum" *明, "light" “bright”

People with the given name Mei

From Japan

* May J. (芽生), a Japanese R&B singer *, Japanese ice hockey player * Mei Fukuda (愛依), Japanese actress * May Nakabayashi (芽依), a Japanese J-Pop artist * Mei Kurokawa, (芽以), a Japanese actress and singer *

Mei Nagano , is a Japanese actress. Amongst her film and television credits are Rinko in the film '' My Love Story!'', Suzume Yosano in the film '' Daytime Shooting Star'', and Suzume Nireno in the 98th NHK asadora ''Hanbun, Aoi''. Early life and career Mei ...

(芽郁), a Japanese actress * Mei Shigenobu (メイ), the daughter of Japanese Red Army communist Fusako Shigenobu

From China

Mei Fong Mei Fong (born August 8, 1972), also known as Fong Foongmei (), is a Malaysian-born American journalist who was staff reporter for the China bureau for ''The Wall Street Journal''. In April 2007, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Internationa ...

(方凤美), a Chinese-American journalist. *

Mei Lin (actress) Mei Lin (1915-1997), also romanised as Mei Ling, was a Chinese actress who worked in the Chinese movie industry in the 1930s. She worked for the Lianhua Film Company, where she began her film career. She also worked for the Xinhua Film Company ...

(梅琳), a Chinese actress. * Mei Hong (chemist), a Chinese-American chemist. * Hong Mei (athlete) (洪梅), a female Chinese athlete.

From other countries

* Mei Joni, an Indonesian basketball player. * Mei Mac (born 1992), British stage actress

Fictional characters with the given name Mei

Japanese characters

* , a character in the manga series ''Black Butler'' * , a character in the manga series ''O-Parts Hunter'' * , a character in the tokusatsu television series ''Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger'' * Mei Hatsume, a character in the manga and anime series ''

My Hero Academia is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from July 2014 to August 2024, with its chapters collected in 42 volumes. Set in a wor ...

'' * Mei Kusakabe, (草壁メイ), a character in the movie

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. It stars the voices of Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto and Hitoshi Takagi, and focuses on two young sisters a ...

* , a character in the novel ''Another'' * , a character in the manga series ''

Ace of Diamond is a Japanese baseball-themed manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Terajima. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from May 2006 to January 2015, with its chapters collected in 47 volum ...

'' * , a character in the manga series ''Love Hina'' * , a character in the visual novel ''Clannad'' * , a character in the manga and anime series ''Naruto'' * , a character in the manga and anime series ''Ouran High School Host Club'' * , a character in the media franchise

Love Live! Superstar!! is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by Kadokawa Corporation, music label Lantis, and animation studio Bandai Namco Filmworks (formerly known as Sunrise). The project is the third major and fourth overall installment in the ''Love Li ...

* , a main character in the manga series ''Fullmetal Alchemist''

Other characters

* Li Mei, a character in the ''Mortal Kombat'' series * Mei (''Overwatch''), a playable character in ''Overwatch'' and ''Heroes of the Storm''

References

{{given name Chinese feminine given names Japanese feminine given names Feminine given names ja:メイ