The name Tokiya is written トキヤ which would imply it's of foreign origin but I'm not having any luck uncovering the origin or meaning of the name. It seems to be somewhat traditional. Ideas?
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8Katakana do not imply foreign origin, but foreign origin (besides Chinese) implies katakana. – Angelos May 05 '16 at 19:48
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1See [How do you write someone's name if you don't know what kanji to use?](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/5313/78) and [Why are katakana preferred over hiragana or kanji sometimes?](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1930/78). – istrasci May 05 '16 at 19:48
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1My surname is Japanese, but I'm not from Japan. When I went to Japan, they have wrote my surname in katakana to imply a foreign origin. I guess that is not the case, in Naruto manga, their first names are written in katakana, or because it is more accessible to children, or faster to write. However when you write in katakana it's hard to figure out which is the meaning of the name, because you can write some names with many variations. – sumitani May 06 '16 at 00:19
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6Written where?? – user3169 May 06 '16 at 03:35
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2But why [half-width katakana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-width_kana)? Is it intentional? – broccoli facemask May 06 '16 at 04:38
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@user3169 NARUTO manga or other related products from the brand: http://naruto-game.bngames.net/character/ see the names of characters. – sumitani May 06 '16 at 22:57
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1@user3169 wondering about a name written in Katakana I've just found 'googling' 一ノ瀬 トキヤ from an anime called うたの☆プリンスさまっ♪ . – sumitani May 06 '16 at 23:01
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1@sumitani Could be, but the OP needs to add details about where used and in what context. Otherwise, this just becomes a general discussion on why katakana would be used. As written the question cannot be answered, because you can't get the background on names from the kana only. – user3169 May 07 '16 at 02:21
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Maybe you mean this character (キャラ) :
一ノ瀬トキヤとは、PSP専用ソフト「うたの☆プリンスさまっ♪」およびテレビアニメ「うたの☆プリンスさまっ♪ マジLOVE1000％」の登場キャラクターである。
The same deal with タツヤ. -- 達也 used to be a common name, but the 也 looks too old-fashioned now. So it's often written in Katakana.
Japanese names (esp. of comedians) are often written in Katakana just for the interesting look (visual impact) -- like the weird spellings like Cyndi and Krysti ....
Also, トキヤ is a very uncommon name. Maybe the creator wants the fans to keep guessing how it'd be written in Kanji.
