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It "may" be spelled that way. Japanese are very creative in the spelling of names. Any combination of Hiragana, katakana or kanji that may be read as or interpreted as meaning "hanaki" will be recorded, no matter what the literal meaning or regular pronunciation, as this is the equivalent of someone's "signature". The meaning will be in reference to the Ume (the so-called plum blossom, though not really a plum), or the Sakura (the so-called cherry blossom, not really a cherry, but actually any of a number of flowering trees in the Prunus family native to Japan, and also a popular name), which at different times have been the dominant "flowering tree" in Japanese culture.

This message was edited 1/18/2018, 3:24 AM