Loaned female first names

Question

Are Japanese first names Erika, Emiri, Marie etc. loaned from gai(koku)jin languages?

Answer 1

It is indeed quite common to give names which are (partially) intended as names from Western languages, for example （女）えりか、えみり、まりえ、もにか、にいな or （男）れお、れおん、ろびん、れい、…

Of course some names lend themselves to this process more than others and it is not at all uncommon to use kanji to write the name, for example 愛利歌【えりか】 or 玲旺【れお】. The child can nevertheless use the Western equivalent (Erica, Leo, etc.) internationally. (For many people names like 龍之介 Ryūnosuke would probably prove much more difficult to remember or pronounce.)