How It Works

For the most part, the names of the characters come a very, very old practice of spelling Japanese words with numbers , from the era of pagers that could send and receive digits but couldn't transmit the Japanese alphabet. So high school girls (yes, really) popularized the custom which can still be found in manga, anime, fiction and other media even to this day.





015 Ichigo

For code 015, only the digits 15 matter:

1 = Ichi 一 (number)

一 (number) 5 = Go 五 (number)



Joined together: Ichigo イチゴ.





ichigo 苺 also means "strawberry" in Japanese. (that's not a jouyou kanji, so it's normally The word苺 also means "strawberry" in Japanese. (that's not a, so it's normally written without kanji .)

016 Hiro

For code 016, only the digits 16 matter:

1 = Hi totsu 一つ (counter)

一つ (counter) 6 = Roku 六 (number)

Joined together: Hiro ヒロ.

056 Gorō

For code 056, only the digits 56 matter:

5 = go 五 (number)

五 (number) 6 = roku 六 (number)

Joined together: Gorō ゴロー.

196 Ikuno

For code 196, it's a bit complicated:

1 = i chi 一 (number)

一 (number) 9 = ku 九 (number)

九 (number) 6

Turn 6 sideways.

You get no の in hiragana.



Joined together: Ikuno イクノ.

214 Futoshi

For code 214, it's a bit complicated:

2 = fu tatsu 二つ (counter)

二つ (counter) 1... or, rather, 14

Normally 14 = juu-yon 十四, (ten, four)

And 10 alone is juu 十.

But in counters, it's read to o 十.

For example, tooka 十日, "10 days."

Normally 14 = 十四, (ten, four) And 10 alone is 十. But in counters, it's read 十. For example, 十日, "10 days." 4 = shi 四 (number)

(so juu-yon 十四, 14, became too-shi 十四 here somehow.)

Joined together: Futoshi フトシ.





The word futoi 太い also means "fat" in Japanese. (wtf Hiro?!)

326 Mitsuru

For code 326:

3 = mi ttsu 三つ (counter)

三つ (counter) 2 = tsu u ツー (English "two" katakanized)

ツー (English "two" katakanized) 6 = roku 六 (number, said fast)

Joined together: Mitsuru ミツル.

390 Miku

For code 390, only the digits 39 matter:

3 = mi ttsu 三つ (counter)

三つ (counter) 9 = ku 九 (number)

Joined together: Miku ミク.

556 Kokoro

For code 556, it's a bit complicated:

5 = go 五 (number)

In kana , go ご.

Which is ko こ with a dakuten .

五 (number) In , ご. Which is こ with a . 5 = (same as above)

6 = roku 六 (number)

Joined together: Kokoro ココロ.





The word kokoro 心 also means "heart" in Japanese. (seriously, Hiro? You're giving the girls cute names like "strawberry" and "heart" while calling Futoshi fat?)

666 Zorome

For 666, it's very simple.





The word zorome ゾロ目, from soroeru 揃える, "to match (uniformly)," and me 目, which means "eye," but in this case it means the number in a die, refers to what happens when two (or more) dice have the exact same number. (for example, you roll two dice and get 1 and 1, that's a zorome.)





In this case, zorome refers to the fact code 666 has 6 three times. (you know how those slot machines in casino have 777? Same thing.)





(honestly, wtf Hiro, Zorome's name is literally a pun.)

703 Naomi

For 703, it's a bit complicated:

7 = na na 七 (number)

七 (number) 0

It looks like the letter "o."

So o お.

It looks like the letter "o." So お. 3 = mittsu 三つ (counter)

Joined together: Naomi ナオミ.

Zero-Two's Nickname

If Hiro were to give Zero-Two a nickname, that nickname would probably be:

0

Looks like an "o."

So o お.

Looks like an "o." So お. 2 = ni 二 (number).

Joined together: Oni オニ.





oni character is a character with horns. The word oni 鬼 is also a kind of demon in Japanese lore. In anime and manga, ancharacter is a character with horns.





osananajimi 幼なじみ, who appears to be in love with him and so she keeps calling him "darling" in some sort of extremely awkward netorare scenario? You know, the one with horns? Yeah, Lum from Urusei Yatsura would be an oni character, yes. For example, you know that sexually aggressive female character that came out of nowhere and has decided the main character is her partner and became uncontrollably attracted to him and keeps forcing some sort of physical contact and is jealous as fuck because he has a "childhood friend,"幼なじみ, who appears to be in love with him and so she keeps calling him "darling" in some sort of extremely awkwardscenario? You know, the one with horns? Yeah, Lum fromwould be ancharacter, yes.





Zero-Tsuu ゼロツー, the By the way, Zero-Two's name written in Japanese isゼロツー, the katakanization of the English numbers of her code.

Nana and Hachi

Nana and Hachi which act as supervisors or something probably have their names coming from the numbers 7 and 8, which are nana 七 and hachi 八 in Japanese.

Episode 13 Children In episode 13, there are children with names whose codes weren't shown. I'm guessing their codes were: Sami 033, 303 or 330

San 3, mittsu 3

033, 303 or 330 3, 3 Junna 017, 107 or 170

Juu 10, nana 7

017, 107 or 170 10, 7 Nakku 079, 709 or 790

Nana 4, ku 9

079, 709 or 790 4, 9 Toshi 104

Too 10, shi 4

104 10, 4 Sakuto 391

San 3, ku 9, too 10

391 3, 9, 10 Shin'ya 48, 408 or 480

Shi 4, yattsu 8 Chart Lastly, the charactersandwhich act as supervisors or something probably have their names coming from the numbers 7 and 8, which are七 and八 in Japanese.

Anime: Darling in the FranXX ダーリン・イン・ザ・フランキス

So, this season there's an anime called Darling in the FranXX (ダリフラ), where the main characters are children product of some nefarious sci-fi utopia thingy. Such children are nameless, referred normally by codenames, which are just a few digits. Except that one of these characters,, used the numbers to come up nicknames for his. The question is: how it works? Why is 015 Ichigo 666 Zorome , and 703 Naomi ? What would be zero-two's nickname ? And is there a meaning behind the names of the adult characters Nana and Hachi (there's a chart at the bottom if you wanna skip.)Update: added the children of episode 13 For reference, here's a chart.And yes, I'm 100% sure Code 196 is called Ikuno because of that instead of becoming Ikuro or something.