HOBBY CHAOS - Bruneian Otaku | Geek | Entertainment Blog: The Meanings of Kamen Rider Names

An interesting post about the meaning of Kamen Rider names!! XD

On one thread on Henshin Justice Unlimited called, "Do the names of shows have meaning? (Gokaiger, etc)" created by PsychoGokaiker and Kamen Rider guru, Igadevil posted the meanings of Kamen Rider names from the original till Kamen Rider Kiva!

Kamen Rider = Masked Rider, self explanatory.

Kamen Rider V3 = Depending on who you ask, it stands for "Version 3" (because he's the third Rider) or "Victory 3" (the third and final triumph over Shocker, since Gelshocker and Destron are direct descendants.) Or both.

Kamen Rider X = You ready for this? It's complicated: The idea was that since he was the 5th Rider, they'd use the Roman Numeral for 5. Coming so soon after V3 though, they couldn't just call him Kamen Rider V. An early title for the series was in fact Kamen Rider W! Read as Kamen Rider Double-V though. Eventually they messed around with it enough and someone realized that if you put one V on top of an upside-down V, it looks like an X. And there you go (the opening theme lyrics even make mention of the "V & V" thing.)

Amazon = He's from the Amazon. Hey, what other Rider is?

Stronger = Not sure of the history of this one, other than that an early name was "Kamen Rider Spark" so it was going to start with an "S" for a while. Stronger also just is catchier than "Strong".

New Kamen Rider = The show's just called "Kamen Rider" onscreen. Toei started denoting it with the "New" to differentiate it after the fact. "Skyrider" comes from the fact that he flies.

Super-1 = was the original codename for Oki's new cybernetic self. Outside of the show, earlier titles were Kamen Rider V9 and Technorider (!) They settled on Super-1 because he was intended to be the "New Kamen Rider 1 of the next generation", aka the 80's.

ZX = Beats me, fans made it up. Considering the "X" is read as "Cross" I think it has a lot to do with the cross-like designs on his weapons. It can also mean Silver Cross, ZX's Badan name. First became a radio show before it have a TV special.

BLACK = Gorgom called him Black Sun, he rejected the name and became Kamen Rider BLACK! (Ishinomori's manga uses lower-case, but the TV character is generally addressed in either caps or katakana.) As for how they picked the name in real life, I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

Kamen Rider Black is supposed to be called Kamen Rider 0 which is supposed to be a new origin story to Kamen Rider, hence the number "0" or "zero." Not sure how it ended to BLACK.

BLACK RX = I actually don't remember the real story is behind the RX. The logo on his chest is a heavily stylized RX though (BLACK's was supposed to be a heavily-stylized Gorgom snake-eating-an-orb.)

Shin = Because he's the true Kamen Rider and everything before and after him did/does it wrong!

ZO = It was long thought that "ZO" just looks like "20" since this was the 20th Anniversary commemorative movie... except then people remembered that ZO came out in 1993. The real meaning behind the name, according to Ishinomori, is that since this was sort of a back-to-basics scaled-down retelling of the original story (again) it's Z = Ultimate O= Starting point (it's supposed to double as a zero.)

J = Multiple stories exist for this one too. The obvious meaning is "Jumbo" but apparently Ishinomori also said it was for "Judge". Then some book went on to add "Jupiter" since he's the biggest Rider ever and all that, and some fans in the 90's thought it stood for "Justice".

Kuuga = 'Kuuga' is of course derived from "Kuwagata" or Stag Beetle, but the bigger reason behind it is Toei wanted something you could also write in Kanji, since of course it would end up being an episode title. The fact that it also means "Empty Self" (or an approximate) is one of television's miracles. Consider, earlier names were Kamen Rider Guardian, Kamen Rider Ouja (!) and Kamen Rider Otis (which I always assumed was meant to be a corruption of "Odyssey".)

Agito = Agito means "I move", which was supposed to represent how Agito kept evolving. The A in Agito is Alpha and the o is Omega. Agito is also an obsolete word for chin.

Gills = The very same kanji for agito/chin could also be for the word gills. Gills was more or less an incomplete Agito.

Ryuki = 龍騎 as it's written in Japanese. 龍 (ryu) means dragon, 騎 means roughly to mount. The guy does ride a dragon bike.

Hibiki = 響(Hibiki)- echo/sound 鬼(ki)- demon/ogre. Sound is a key element and the guy is supposed to be an ogre.

Kabuto = Kabuto is based on the kabuto beetle, but his early name was 甲斗, which is pronounced Kabuto as well. 甲(Kabuto)-Helmet 斗(to)- it's a type of measurement. His final name in Japanase was カブト, so it was slightly different.

Sasword = From the word sasori, which means scorpion, and the word sword.

Gatack = From kuwagata, the type of beetle he was based on, and attack.

Den-O = Train King. He's based on trains.

Zeronos = From the word zero and Chronos, which was supposed to show that everyone would eventually forget about him. Chronos was some sort of time god or something.

Kiva = King of Vampires, pun on the word kiba which means fang.

IXA = Read the same as the word 戦 (war, fight).

G = Because he is the true OG

Kudos to PsychoGokaiger for creating this interesting thread! Asides from Kamen Rider show name meanings, you will learn Super Sentai show meanings and probably one of the weirdest you will learn in this thread is the meaning behind 'Maji Maji Magiro' which means, 'Are we really serious?'

Via JEFusion