What is "kaoru"

Kaoru is a Japanese given name for males or females. The name's meaning varies depending on its written form:

• 薫/郁/芳 — "fragrance", common for both males and females
• 馨/香 — "fragrance", more common for females
• かおる —　purely phonetic form in hiragana; no inherent meaning
• かをる — same as above, using を as an archaic substitute for お
• カオル — phonetic form in katakana

As a distinctly unisex name, its usage in popular culture has risen in recent years to give the named character an air of androgyny. Such characters commonly have overt androgynous qualities as well.

A similar name, in terms of both pronunciation and meaning, is Kaori. It is used exclusively for females.

is a Japanese musician, best known as the leader and one of the guitarists of the visual kei metal band Dir En Grey. He has been with the group since its inception in 1997 and was previously a member of La:Sadie's. He has composed most of Dir en grey's songs (at least up to the Vulgar album, at which individual credits for the music were dropped). His contributions display a fair amount of variety, ranging from slow ballads such as "Zakuro" to upbeat numbers like "Jessica". He performs many solos for the band, which vary strongly in feeling and tempo, similar to his compositions. Kaoru cites hide as his biggest influence and the reason he plays guitar, saying "If I had never known him, I wouldn’t be who I am today."

is a Japanese professional wrestler better known by the ring name Kaoru (stylized in all capital letters). Billed as the "Original Hardcore Queen", Kaoru is known for her wrestling style, which combines high-flying with hardcore wrestling. Trained by the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, Maeda worked in both Japan and Mexico in the late 80s and early 90s, before making her breakthrough in the Gaea Japan promotion, where she most notably was a founding member of the D-Fix stable. After the folding of Gaea Japan in 2005, Maeda became a freelancer, though closely affiliating herself with the Oz Academy promotion. After returning from a three-year-long injury break in March 2014, Maeda resumed working as a freelancer, before signing with the new Marvelous promotion in January 2015.