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Comment by amiga386 | Hacker News Reader

Another one to add is that Japanese boys names often end -rō (-郎, "nth son")... including the very plainly named 一郎 (Ichirō, "first son"), 二郎 (Jirō, "second son"), 三郎 (Saburō, "third son"), 四郎 (Shirō "fourth son"), 五郎 (Gorō, "fifth son"), 六郎 (Rokurō, "sixth son"), 七郎 (Shichirō "seventh son"), 八郎 (Hachirō, "eighth son") and 九郎 (Kurō, "ninth son")

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I believe some Ancient Roman names are also like this:

Male: Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, Nonus.

Female: Prima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta, Sexta, Octavia, Nona, and Decima

But on further investigation the males seem to actually be named after months https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/zshd6h/when_...

and the women are unclear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praenomen

I don't know about Ancient Romans, but I do know a few Italian men with numbered names. In particular a Decimo (tenth), who was indeed the tenth (and I wouldn't swear the last).

They are all, unsurprisingly, old :)

Iron Maiden: Shichirō no Shichirō

Is Shiro a taboo name? Seen an ad for a big corp not printing 4 out of deference to the Japanese, since its the word for death.

Or do people associate it with white?

I'm not sure. 4 and death just sound the same, it's more a superstition to avoid saying those numbers, like Westerners thinking 13 is unlucky. It doesn't extend to all words beginning with or containing "shi"

Also, shiro (城 castle or 白 white) is not the same as the name Shirō (e.g. 四郎 "fourth son", 志郎 "determined son"?, 史郎 "historical son"?)

That's pretty convenient and easy to remember

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