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Kanji for Firefly
The kanji most commonly used for "Firefly" is 蛍.
蛍
Kanji that mean Firefly
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蛍
firefly, glowworm
Onyomi: kei Kunyomi: hotaru 11 strokes Jōyō
蛍 (hotaru) is the firefly. The insect radical 虫 sits under a crown of light — the modern form of a character that once showed fire doubled over the bug. Fireflies are a beloved emblem of early summer in Japan: 蛍狩り, “firefly hunting”, is the June evening outing to watch them over streams, and their brief light has stood for transience in poetry since the Heian court.
Every Japanese person also knows 蛍の光 — “Glow of the Firefly” — the graduation song set to Auld Lang Syne, which borrows an old Chinese image of a poor student reading by firefly light. That gives the character a second association: earnest study, and partings.
As a name, Hotaru is used for girls and appears in fiction; it reads delicate and slightly nostalgic. The character is Jōyō and has no negative senses.
Words using Firefly kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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蛍光灯
けいこうとう
fluorescent lamp; fluorescent light; person who is slow to react
Before you use Firefly kanji
蛍 is safe and evocative: summer evenings, fleeting light, quiet nostalgia. The one nuance to know is impermanence — the firefly shines briefly — which is precisely why poets loved it. Nothing about the character is unlucky or slangy.