His real name - Kenshin or Shinta?

[Ankha]

I'm a bit sad that Kenshin doesn't tell his friends about his Shinta name. Okay, someone here said that it was in vol. 12 (?) in the manga, but a lot of people have said it isn't in the manga at all.... rolleyes

I don't know why I'm so disappointed... Maybe it's because I wanted to "hear" Kenshin say it. Silly, eh?  

[Akira_Hoshino]

It is in volume 12, when Kenshin tells Hiko his name is Shinta and Hiko renames him Kenshin. (As I said before, the "shin" in "Kenshin" comes right out of "Shinta.") But I'm 99% sure he never tells Kaoru or the rest of the Kenshin-gumi. I only own the volumes where Kenshin relates his past to his friends in Japanese, and it takes me longer to read them than in the English, but I still think I'd remember if Kenshin mentioned his name to them. He had no reason to; he doesn't talk about Hiko during that time. So I really don't think he told them. But that doesn't mean he doesn't on some different occasion Watsuki didn't write about.  

[samuraichikX]

i dont recall him telling them in the manga, then again i havent read all of it, if anyone followed the anime first which is what i did he tells her in reflection which really doesnt count, cuz it isnt the real ending just cuz it's a piece of crap and watsuki didnt write it  

[blossoming-angel]

shinta apparently is a very childish name or sumfing so the name got changed into kenshin wich means: "ken-sword, shin-heart"  

[ponponpon way x2]

Yami no Hitokiri

In old Japan, when a child became a warrior, they received a warrior name. This usually happened on the child's 15th birthday, the ceremony genpuku. When Hiko took Shinta as his apprentice, his childhood ended and his warrior life began at the tender age of ten. Therefore, his name change to Kenshin was like an early genpuku since he'd already seen so much misery in his short life.

In the manga, Kenshin doesn't reveal his childhood name to his friends.

So, wait, in the anime he revealed his childhood name to his friends? I don't remember that...  

[Akira_Hoshino]

Genbu no miko Marie

Yami no Hitokiri

In old Japan, when a child became a warrior, they received a warrior name. This usually happened on the child's 15th birthday, the ceremony genpuku. When Hiko took Shinta as his apprentice, his childhood ended and his warrior life began at the tender age of ten. Therefore, his name change to Kenshin was like an early genpuku since he'd already seen so much misery in his short life.

In the manga, Kenshin doesn't reveal his childhood name to his friends.

So, wait, in the anime he revealed his childhood name to his friends? I don't remember that...

crying I have said so many times that he didn't!!!! cry Creative rights were taken in Seisouhen (spoilers follow smile and at the very end when he's dying he asks Kaoru to call him Shinta. That is the only time it happened and it wasn't even Watsuki-approved.  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

Right, he doesn't in the manga. Seisuckhen doesn't count for s**t, in my opinion. However, I'd like to think that maybe right around the time he marries Kaoru, Kenshin will tell her about his childhood and time with Hiko just so she can understand him better. After all, would you marry a man you didn't understand? I think maybe then Kenshin would tell her about his old name, but he certainly wouldn't want to go back to using it. Kenshin's a man who believes in moving with the flow of time, not living in the past.  

[ponponpon way x2]

Akira_Hoshino

Genbu no miko Marie

Yami no Hitokiri

In old Japan, when a child became a warrior, they received a warrior name. This usually happened on the child's 15th birthday, the ceremony genpuku. When Hiko took Shinta as his apprentice, his childhood ended and his warrior life began at the tender age of ten. Therefore, his name change to Kenshin was like an early genpuku since he'd already seen so much misery in his short life.

In the manga, Kenshin doesn't reveal his childhood name to his friends.

So, wait, in the anime he revealed his childhood name to his friends? I don't remember that...

crying I have said so many times that he didn't!!!! cry Creative rights were taken in Seisouhen (spoilers follow smile and at the very end when he's dying he asks Kaoru to call him Shinta. That is the only time it happened and it wasn't even Watsuki-approved.

Oh yeah, in Seisouhen, how could I be so stupid as to forget about that? O.O Figures it would have to happen in an, um... Movie? Yeah, so, Watsuki didn't even approve it, once again, had to be the case. It doesn't seem in Kenshin's anime, or manga, character to tell them his real name. Kenshin's an emo in the movies. XD  

[chocolateee]

yup its Shinta he just change it. i dont know about manga. neutral  

[Seliece]

Yes; in the part where Hiko finds Kenshin, he tells Hiko that his name is Shinta. He renames him Kenshin because Shinta sounds too kind.

 

[savage-charley]

Miwaslover

Kenshin is the name he got when he went as an apprentice to Seijirou Hiko. Shinta is the name that his adopted parents gave him. We never really know Kenshin's true name.

I think Shinta is Kenshin's real name, not the name his adopted parents gave him. And, I think he didn't have any other parent other than his biological parents because he was sold as a slave together with the three women who protected him.  

[Vlad Draculesti]

yeah since everyone already said the stuff about Shinta being his real name and Kenshin being given to him by Hiko I just say this in the last OVA He tells Kaoru to call him by his real name since he was no longer a swordsman I think that was how it was.  

[SilentNinjaFox]

Shinta doesn't really seem like the right name for him. Kenshin fits him much better. :d  

[Empress_Tsubame]

??? I don't see how most people voted for Kenshin.

His real name is Shinta.

~That was his first name and real name~  

[Ladieburd]

samuraichikX

Miwaslover

Kenshin is the name he got when he went as an apprentice to Seijirou Hiko. Shinta is the name that his adopted parents gave him. We never really know Kenshin's true name.

adopted? what the isnt that the name his birth parents gave him he was never adopted he was sold into slavery at like 8 years old and then was apprenticed by hiko he was never adopted O.o

I think you're right. I was pretty sure that his birth parents named him before they died. razz