What does Onii-Chan mean?


I watched Himouto!Umaru-Chan and Umaru calls her brother Onii-Chan. Since Chan
is a suffix after female names I was confused. At first I thought that it
meant big brother, but I turned on a dubbed version and it still said Onni-
Chan. So what does it mean?




You were actually right, Onii-chan means pretty much the same as Onii-san as
in older brother. The difference is the former is informal or "cuter", while
the latter is more formal, as "-chan" is an informal honorific, while "-san"
is a formal one.

According to [this short Japanese honorifics
lesson](https://takelessons.com/blog/japanese-honorifics-z05):

> _–chan_
>
> This is an endearing female honorific. While it’s most commonly used for
> children, **it’s also used fairly widely among family and friends**

