[archgoon]

Huh, according to Jim Breen's dictionary (http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic) 'good, fortunate' is '礼' (rei). '令' (rei) is listed as 'command, decree'. The official character that is being used is '令'.

Is there some rule or convention that explains why 令 means 'good, fortunate' here? Is it due to the usage in the 7th century poetry that is referenced in the article?

[comex]

Even though there's an explanation, I've seen a bunch of negative reaction to the name from Japanese people online because of the association with "command", also linking it to the current prime minister and his relatively militaristic politics.

[archgoon]

Interesting; came across this Twitter thread with a fairly detailed analysis.

https://mobile.twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/111270395164693...

[tanilama]

In this particular case, '令月' means[1], a good month.

https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%A4%E6%9C%88-660939

If we have to trace back even further, it can date back to the ancient Chinese classic, the Classic of Poetry, where it is being used as good/respectful:

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BB%A4%E9%97%BB%E4%BB%A4%E6%...

[needle0]

The namers can publicly claim it to mean one thing while privately intending to be another, of course.

[tanilama]

In case of Chinese characters, they can be interpreted under different context, I agree.