Baby name
RARE
🇯🇵 Hotei
/HOH · tay/
Meaning
“Man with the sack”
From Japanese 布袋 (Hotei), from a Middle Chinese term for 'cloth sack', used by metonymy for the man who carries it. The figure is originally the Chinese god Budai, received into Japanese mythology and Shinto as the fat, happy god of abundance and good health - one of the Seven Lucky Gods, associated with the Maitreya Buddha tradition and often depicted as the 'Laughing Buddha'.
Vibe
jovialauspicious
How it ages.
Essentially unused as an everyday personal name - known through Japanese mythology and Buddhist iconography as the 'Laughing Buddha' rather than a documented naming tradition.
The cultural moment.
Very rare as a given name; no national ranking recorded.