How to pronounce Hikari

Hikari is most commonly pronounced "hee kah ree" (/ˌhiːkɑːˈriː/). This pronunciation is documented by the project itself (see HikariCP README — "Hi·ka·ri [hi·ka·'lē] (Origin: Japanese): light; ray.").

Hikari is the Japanese word 光 ("light; ray") and the name behind HikariCP, the high-performance JDBC connection pool that Spring Boot uses by default — hence the ubiquitous "HikariPool-1 - Starting..." log line. The README's own heading spells the pronunciation out as Hi·ka·ri [hi·ka·'lē]: hee-kah-REE, three even syllables with the Japanese flapped r sounding close to an English l. English readers commonly get it wrong as "HIGH-kah-ree" with a long English i; the trailing CP (Connection Pool) is then spelled out as C-P.

Alternate readings you might hear:

• "hee kah lee" /ˌhiːkɑːˈliː/

Source: HikariCP README — "Hi·ka·ri [hi·ka·'lē] (Origin: Japanese): light; ray."

Pronouncing project and product names correctly avoids the small but persistent friction of being gently corrected during standups, conference Q&As, and team calls. Hearing the word a few times locks in the right reading better than reading IPA ever will. Pronounce is a community-maintained dictionary — every entry tagged with a confidence level and (where possible) a citable source.