Kanji for Wolf

狼 is the wolf, read ōkami, and it is the only character for the animal. It is a Jinmeiyō character, so it is legal in a Japanese given name, though it is rarely chosen. The 犭 on its left is the beast radical shared with 狐 (fox), 猫 (cat) and 猿 (monkey).

The connotation is not the English one. In the mountain regions the wolf was treated as a guardian of the fields against deer and boar, and shrines such as Mitsumine in Chichibu keep wolf statues where other shrines keep guardian dogs. The lone-wolf image exists too — 一匹狼 is the standard word for someone who works outside any group — and it reads as admiring more than sinister.

One caution. In the compound 狼狽 (rōbai) the character carries no wolfish sense at all; the word simply means panic or fluster.