The Meaning of Your Name: 'RAI SEQUOIA'

Dear Son,

Your father has had the name ‘Rai’ on his mind since he first saw a Valiant comic book named ‘Rai’ when he was 15 years old. The sound of the name had a lasting impact on him and he carried it in the back of his mind until the day we found out that your mother was pregnant. At that moment, ‘Rai’ resurfaced in your father’s mind and he knew that if you were to be a boy, that that would be your name.

At the time your father first saw the comic, he had no idea that only 5 or 6 years later he would move to Japan, and begin a year-long adventure that would change the course of his life and ambitions and would lead him to your mother. The comic’s Japanese setting makes this connection more special. Moreover, it was during a 2-month summer vacation in Japan that you were conceived. Was the appeal of the name ‘Rai’ foreshadowing of these many coincidental events to come?

About the Comic Book

Rai (pronounced "rye") is a fictional superhero from the Valiant Comics universe. Rai is the spirit guardian that protects the nation of Japan in the 41st century. It is a mantle passed down from father to son through the generations.

The Japanese kanji character used for Rai’s name is actually mispronounced. The kanji on the right side of the comic book cover is the character for ‘spirit’ and is actually pronounced ‘rei’ like the English word ‘ray’. However, the hero Rai is also known as the ‘Rising Spirit’ so the makers of the comic decided to name him ‘Rai’ to invoke the meaning of ‘rise’ through alliteration and follow this by the kanji for spirit.

The kanji for ‘Rei’ (spirit) can be seen below with the traditional kanji preceding the modern version. Your mother and I discussed the topic for some time before making a final decision. The debate had two sides: 1. use the kanji ‘rei’ for spirit as the kanji representing your name just as it was mistakingly used in the comic book OR, 2. to recognize the error in pronunciations made by the publisher and, subsequently, to use a kanji character actually pronounced ‘rai’ as the kanji representing your name. After some deliberation, we decided on the latter. As a result, the meaning ‘spirit’ was regrettably lost from your name, but, in exchange, we remained true to the proper pronunciations of Japanese characters.

Your Kanji Character and Its Meaning

When searching for Japanese characters read as ‘rai’ we found a long list of different kanji with various meanings. Our final three considerations were the characters for ‘trust’, ‘gift’ and ‘thunder’. We finally decided on the character below (thunder) as it contains a spiritual element (we were still sad about losing the meaning ‘spirit’ from your name). The upper portion of the character means descent from heaven, a piece of a full character often used with characters for words tied to the gods or the heavens. The bottom portion means (rice) fields.

If we look at the Chinese character for the word, it means to have rain on the fields, so this is an expression for the deity that helps watering the rice paddies.

In Japan, this character is now used to mean: thunder or lightning bolt

Your family name, Sequoia (si-kwoi-uh), of course, is the scientific name given to either of two large coniferous trees of California, Sequoiadendron giganteum or Sequoia sempervirens, both having reddish bark and reaching heights of more than 300 ft; the mighty coastal and inland redwoods! The word ‘sequoia’ is derived from Sequoya, the Cherokee Indian scholar (1770-1843) and inventor of a syllabary for writing the Cherokee language.

In Summary:

Your Name RAI SEQUOIA

Meaning: Thunder, the lightning bolt, spiritual deliverer of rains to bring life to the

fields and forests of giant redwoods.