Are these Japanese names?

[Ambi Valent]

I recently tried to find out if some "Japanese names" were actually Japanese or were just made up. I looked into name-meaning sites and baby-name sites and almost concluded they were made up, but then I remembered that names could be spelled differently, or the correct writing could be lost in transmission.

The names in question are:
Kitai Ishibashi
Tako Kakuta
Son Okura
Wuriu Sengu
Tama Yokida

If you think you recognize the names: yes, they're indeed

Spoiler! :

the Japanese part of the Second Genesis Crisis.

[quethiril]

Well, all of the surnames appear to be real, with the possible exception of Sengu. I don't know the kanji for any of them except Ishibashi would normally be 石橋.

For the given names:
Kitai - seems to exist as a surname but not as a given name
Tako - real name
Son - real name
Wuriu - "wu" is not a real Japanese syllable
Tama - real name

WWWJDIC has a dictionary called ENAMDICT which includes both surnames and given names, and is very helpful.

[Beware the talking cat]

Um. Isn't Tama a cat/dog name?

[Ambi Valent]

Um. Isn't Tama a cat/dog name?

Tama was actually the only name I found (with the same spelling) on a baby name site (translated as "Jewel").

Thanks for the help! I really wondered whether the names were made up. I had read that the names had been copied from a Japanese phonebook (because the writer didn't know much about Japan), but I've read that about other characters in other stories, and those were revealed to have been made up by their authors. And I've never heard/read one of the given names from another source. The phonebook source would explain Wuriu Sengu (not from Japan) and Kitai Ishibashi (a doctor in fiction, possibly originally two sharing a phonebook entry: Kitai and Ishibashi).

[R1CK_D0M]

Actually, they are all japanese names. There are no set list of japanese names, because it's not uncommon for a japanese parent to just think of an ideal name, and then spell it out in kanji afterwards. So as long as it fits within the alphabet and is not obviously katakana (as in anything with a v), you can most likely put it in kanji and have it be a japanese name.