What's with naming male characters female names?

[Compy386]

Hotaru and Reiko mainly. Also what's with Goro and Kintaro. That's like the Bob and Jim of Japan.

 

[DAVE101]

What girls do you know have those names? I've never heard them in my life with the exception of MK.

 

[Compy386]

What girls do you know have those names? I've never heard them in my life with the exception of MK.

Not in my life, but they're common girl names over in Asialand

 

[ZAQ]

We used to have a japanese foreign exchange student named Shintaro in HS. People would always yell SHINTARO WINS! and he would just raise his arm all confused and proud.

 

[dreemernj]

I asked this question of someone from Japan a while back and they said that the names are commonly used for men and women. I don't know how accurate that is, since I have no first hand experience with the Japanese culture.