Grandma Headcanons
Hitsugaya’s grandmother gave him and Hinamori both their names. She’s an institution in Junrinan, and has lived there as long as anyone can remember. Long enough to have learned to write--and quite beautifully, though anyone with formal training wouldn’t give her hand a second glance. This has afforded her some social capital, in that she will take in hungry children, and the rest of the village will offer her goods, as a sort of payment for being the one who deals with them. She’s cared for many children, and will teach any who ask how to read and write. Hinamori has been her most eager student to date.
But back to the names. imho I think Kubo’s core characters all have baller names in general, but I’ve always wondered how all the Rukongai kids came to have such baller names in the first place. And family names at all, given that family lineages are not a thing in Rukongai, by definition--so you’d have to make one up for yourself, or have it given. And like, personally, I think “Toushirou” is a super clever name. I am EXTREMELY fond of that extra u, for the “tou” in 冬 (winter) instead of any the “to” in regular “Toshirou.” [Insert “I just think they’re neat” meme.] But I would also need to be aggressively convinced that he came up with that on his own, lol.
So I’m just imagining Junrinan Grandma coming up with these beautiful, outsized names for peasant children who aren’t expected to ever need them, writing them in sweeping brush script just because she can. Not all the children she names are destined for great things beyond the eyes of the village, and they don’t have to be; she will name them all the same. But to the ones who leave, she gives a family name as well. She likens the task to poetry.
“You’ll need one where you’re going,” she says.
One unique and all your own.