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ArchivesRe: Miko means...
in reply to a message by Deanna
More plausibly it's the Finnish form (also Mika) of Michael, or Mike, the explanation given by Wiktionary. It's also a Japanese female name, most probably a use of the word for a Japanese shrine maiden, which literally means "god's child" (i.e. a child dedicated to or serving a god), in kanji 巫女 (miko woman), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%B7%AB%E5%A5%B3#Japanese
"From Old Japanese. Originally a compound of 神 (mi, “spirit, god”) + 子 (ko, “child”), as suggested by the alternative spelling 神子.
Pronunciation
(Irregular reading)
(Tokyo) みこ [míꜜkò] (Atamadaka - [1])[2][1]
(Tokyo) みこ [mìkó] (Heiban - [0])[2][1]
IPA(key): [miko̞]
Alternative forms
神子, 神巫 (rare), 巫 (obsolete)
Noun
巫女 (hiragana みこ, romaji miko)
An unmarried [girl] who serves at a Shintō shrine, helping to receive visitors and performing 神楽 (kagura) dances at ceremonies, among other responsibilities.
An unmarried [girl] who serves a deity as a medium to convey oracles."
The Kanji is possibly from the Old Persian symbol for a magus (one of the magi), through further development in Han Chinese ideographs.
"From Old Japanese. Originally a compound of 神 (mi, “spirit, god”) + 子 (ko, “child”), as suggested by the alternative spelling 神子.
Pronunciation
(Irregular reading)
(Tokyo) みこ [míꜜkò] (Atamadaka - [1])[2][1]
(Tokyo) みこ [mìkó] (Heiban - [0])[2][1]
IPA(key): [miko̞]
Alternative forms
神子, 神巫 (rare), 巫 (obsolete)
Noun
巫女 (hiragana みこ, romaji miko)
An unmarried [girl] who serves at a Shintō shrine, helping to receive visitors and performing 神楽 (kagura) dances at ceremonies, among other responsibilities.
An unmarried [girl] who serves a deity as a medium to convey oracles."
The Kanji is possibly from the Old Persian symbol for a magus (one of the magi), through further development in Han Chinese ideographs.
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Replies
It should also be noted that "Miko" in Japanese can be made up of other kanji characters. As a name, I find it more likely that it would be made up of the kanji for "beautiful" (mi) and the kanji for "child" (ko) as opposed to coming from the term for the shrine maiden.
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That sense seems to be implicit in the idea of a shrine maiden. It's also written with the Kanji for shrine or "hikari", but still said "Miko". It could also mean "third child" (written with the Kanji for third "mi"or three "san", but see below), "true love" (written as mi "fruit" + koi "love") or "true child", or be an abbreviation of other names starting with mi and ending ko, such as Minamiko (South child) or Mitsuko, although the latter is a kenning of Miko, as Mitsu "light" is a synonym of hikari "shrine". Note that Mitsuko is also written as "san/mi (three/third)+ko (child)", so the latter may just be a use of the mi/san Kanji in place of the derivative Hiragana syllabic symbol for "mi".
This message was edited 7/24/2016, 10:38 PM
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