通字 Tsūji - Samurai Names

Distinctive Characters for Samurai Names:

Tsūji are the kanji characters that a family gives great importance to, so mostly every male that grows to be a samurai will take this character in their name. Sometimes there will be more than one tsuuji that a family alternates with or a new tsuuji is brought from the mother's side. The tsuuji might fall out of favour or run out of combinations and a new tsuuji might become the fashion.

It was a common practice in feudal Japan for a higher-ranked warrior to bestow a character from his own name to his inferiors as a symbol of recognition.

Names are not forever either. A samurai might be given a character by his lord from his name, or the samurai may want to break away and forge a new name. For example, Ashikaga Yoshiharu (足利義晴) bestowed the 'haru' to Takeda Harunobu (武田晴信). Later, receive the name Takeda Shingen (武田信玄) from his Buddhist master.

When creating a name for one of your samurai, consider their family tsūji and then pair it with another character. The order of characters doesn't really matter, it's really what sounds good.

There have been 女武者 Onna-musha who have taken names in this style. Example: Ii Naotora.