has anyone else noticed that sakura's name (from naruto) is a play on words?

This would be true if her family name was spelled with hiragana. However, it's spelled with kanji, so "no" actually means "field", not "of".

Think of it this way. Say the word "by". Just by itself, no one will know if you said "by", "bye", or "buy". However, if you give it context ("The tree is BY the river"), people know what word you mean.

Japanese has a lot less sounds than we do, so it's even harder for them. "No" may mean "of", but it can mean many other things depending on what character is used to spell it. Depending on these spellings, the meaning changes.

So yeah... Her name more accurately means "Spring field, cherry blossoms".

The name "Haruno" means "spring field", and the name "Sakura" means "cherry blossom", a flower which is cherished in Japan due to its beauty and its almost-tragically short life span (cherry blossoms have historically been associated with the samurai). The cherry blossom also serves as the national flower for the nation of Japan. In Japanese, "Haruno Sakura" means "spring field of cherry blossoms", which may be an origin of the name

http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Sakura_haruno#Trivia

i read from narutopedia a lot. so yeah, i knew what her name meant years ago...

My gawd, I never noticed. I know Sakura means cherry blossom and I also know that haru means Spring - but I didn't put the two together.

Most of the names of characters of naruto have a hidden meaning to them, like for eg:- the uchiha family's name comes from the bird uchiwa- somewhat like the ones that itachi uses in his genjutsu. To find out more go to http://www.naruto.wikia.com/

Hope this helped!!!!

i noticed it!! XD Her name is so nice ^.^ not just sakura, most of the characters name in naruto are unique...

http://forums.narutofan.com/showthread.php?t=98530

yea, alot of japanese names have play on words