Why does "子" often come at the end of a woman's name, but comes at the start of the term for a baby animal?


"子" (or "こ") often comes at the [end of a woman's
name](http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/names-for-people.html). But for baby animals,
"子" is at the [start of the term](http://www.language-
exchanges.org/es/content/confusing-about-animals-name). Why is it different
for the two?

(I've heard of the name "Koichi" belonging to a Japanese man, but I don't know
if that literally means "child one", uses "子", or is cognate with "子")




This is difficult to answer, but:  
TL;DR **Because the meaning of 子 in the end of name and that of 子 at the start
of term meaning baby animals are different!**

* * *

"子" (or "こ") as the end of a woman's name and "子" as the start of the term of
baby animals (I think you mean something like "[子猫]{こねこ}".) What "子" here
makes are very different.

  * 子 as the end of a woman's name **"makes a name."**
    * This is a **suffix**. 
    * According to [this site](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AD%90_\(%E4%BA%BA%E5%90%8D\)), 子 as suffix of name is seen way before Heian era, and has been used in man's name back then.
    * Looks like that in Heian era, the emperor gave the princess the name so: they first replaced the kanji in their name with the one of same reading (because they looking bad,) picked one of them (name back then contained multiple letters,) then added 子. 
    * Then the name using suffix 子 became widespread.
  * 子 as the starting of the term of baby animals makes a "term." 
    * In this case, it works as a _prefix._
    * This 子 has the obvious meaning of "baby of."

And no, we never say baby cats as "猫子." It's weird. Using 「子」 as prefix,
babies of animal (grammatically `general noun`) are often called "子-(name of
animal.)" For instance, 子猫{こねこ}、子犬{こいぬ}.  
But also note that there are some cases that "子-prefix" sounds weird.

* * *

> I've heard of the name "Koichi" belonging to a Japanese man, but I don't
> know if that literally means "child one", uses "子", or is cognate with "子"

It doesn't. Koichi is read "KO-O/I-CHI" ( **こう** /いち) and written as 光一, 幸一,
浩一 etc.

