As promised, some nerdery on Himejima Gyoumei's name.
Himejima: 悲鳴嶼
First off, when searching to get some feedback from the Japanese fandom on meanings behind the name, one of the first questions answered is "what do I type to get the right kanji for his name" because they can be rather difficult. While "shima/jima" (島 island) is used in a lot of Japanese surnames, the one he uses (嶼) is rather rare, and refers to a particularly small island.
A small island, perhaps, or a really, really big chunk of rock. Rather fitting that way, isn't it? Also, while we're going kanji nerd, kanji characters are often composed of different radicals (pieces of the kanji) which make represent part of the meaning or pronunciation. That's why when interpreting a character's name, like Agatsuma Touko's (我妻燈子), I've seen people point out how the 火 (fire) in "lantern" (燈) may be in reference to the her great-grandmother. In Himejima's case, I'd like to point out the mountain (山) in 嶼. Sure, the regular 島 has a 山 too, but it does seem very purposeful to have chosen something with a reference to something strong and rocky.
Backing up a bit, 悲 is sadness, and 鳴 is "to cry out" (like a bird calling), but if you put them together, you get 悲鳴 ("himei"). This is to cry out in anguish, to wail, to scream with sorrow.
No pun in intended, but that's pretty heavy-handed.
Gyoumei: 行冥
This also seems pretty heavy-handed at first: "go" and "blind."
We can dive into 冥 first. You can also interpret this as any absence of light, be it blindness, darkness, or even in reference to the otherworldly, be it hell, or the unseen world of gods and their workings. Besides the darkness in Himejima's heart for all he's experienced in fighting demons and feeling betrayed by children, this could also be in reference to the ability he gains to see the unseen world, one that is not touched by light.
As for 行, this is a deceptively simple kanji, one of the first you'd ever learn when studying Japanese. Not only does it mean "to go" but also "to carry out." I've thus seen "Gyoumei" interpreted as "going on despite the darkness" or "carrying on in his mission despite blindness" or even "to go into the darkness."
However, 行 also has connotations with Buddhist practice, especially ascetic practice. 行者 (Gyouja) is one whom follows the path of Buddhahood, who may or may not have the qualifications to be called a monk of other particular ranks, with 行 referring to Buddhist practice itself.
Now, this is just my speculation, but because ”Gyoumei” is so on-point, I wonder if it may have been a Dharma name, that is, a name a lay person takes upon become a Buddhist monk or nun. It has a ring to it very similar to many monks' names.
Little Gyoumei was not born blind. When he was still a baby, he got a high fever which resulted in his blindness. He lost all his family, and was raised in a temple himself, and even though he was malnourished and skinny, he grew tall and had enough power to do labor. Though he was always gentle and wanted to help people who were suffering, his intuition about his surroundings was so strong that some people found him creepy, while others tested him by throwing things at him or trying to trip him, but Gyoumei wound up avoiding all of that, leading people to calling him a liar.
He had a really heartbreaking upbringing, so it doesn't surprise me that he would choose to remove himself from worldly affairs to work in a temple, at which point, he had may had changed his name. Someone chose the name "Gyoumei" for him, perhaps with 行 taken from part of the name of the monk who raised him to denote linage, or taken from the personal name he might have been given at birth.
But ”Himejima”? Hmm.
Unlike how many other surnames in Kimetsu no Yaiba do exist in real life, albeit super rare (Kamado, Tsuyuri, Shinazugawa, Ubuyashiki, those are all real and the few people with those names are a little bewildered by sudden fame), there is no record of "Himejima" as a surname, as least not as far as I can tell.
If Gyoumei perhaps only went by his Dharma name and could not recall his surname due to having entered the temple when he was so young, then maybe he was encouraged to take a surname when he entered the Corp. In that case, he might had thought of this himself to express his how brokenhearted and alone he feels as a sturdy rock, or this may had been Ubuyashiki Kagaya's suggestion due to his pity for and understanding of him. Or, perhaps there were other Pillars who took one look at this crying mountain of a man and suggested it sarcastically.
To wrap this up, though, some of the Japanese fandom interprets Himejima Gyoumei's full name thus:
"A lone island bearing lots of sadness, carrying out his mission in spite of his blindess."
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