Why is 江風 being translated to Kawakaze even though there's no Kawa in the kanji?


I am studying Japanese and I am also a bit of an _Azur Lane_ fan (a gacha
game). One of my favorite characters is called Kawakaze, based on the real-
life IJN
[Kawakaze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Kawakaze_\(1936\))
(a Shiratsuyu-class destroyer). The kanji that are being used are 江風 which
translates to "Bay Wind", even though "River Wind" seems to be much more
popular for some reason.

I looked these kanji up and I notice a problem. The first one ("Bay", "Creek",
"Inlet") has no reading that translates to "Kawa". The second is "Kaze"
meaning "wind".

How's that possible? I did some looking around and her _Kancolle_ (a similar
gacha game) counterpart actually has a note on her
[page](https://en.kancollewiki.net/w/index.php?title=Kawakaze) that says

> Her kanji "江風" would more commonly be read as "Ekaze" instead of "Kawakaze".

There's even a
[voiceline](https://kancolle.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Mystia_Lore./Counterattack_!_The_Second_Operation_SN)
that goes like this.

> Kawakaze : YO ! The 9th Shiratsuyu-class Destroyer, Kawakaze of the revised
> Shiratsuyu-class. Nice to meet you ! Ah, about the reading of my name, do
> not get it wrong ! It's KAWAKAZE, not Ekaze !
>
> Myschin : Ekaze and Kawakaze doesn't sound alike at all ! I won't make that
> kind of mistake but...

So how does this happen? Is this something unique to warships or is there some
funkiness going on that I just don't understand. I am a beginner, so this
might just be a very simple thing that I just don't understand.
[Jisho](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%B1%9F%E9%A2%A8) says 江 only has two
readings: え and コウ, but not かわ.




The kanji 江 does mean "river", too, although this meaning is almost obsolete.
See [this entry](https://jisho.org/word/%E6%B1%9F-1). For example, 江 is in the
name of 長江 ([Yangtze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze)). [This
page](https://chu-
channel.com/%E5%B7%9D%E3%81%A8%E6%B2%B3%E3%81%A8%E6%B1%9F-7110) (written in
Japanese) explains the differences of three kanji that means "river" (川, 河,
江).

As for the reading, the only "official" kun-reading of 江 is え today, but the
readings of kanji were not very standardized in the past. Since 江 meant
"river", かわ could have been recognized as a valid kun-reading of 江 in the
past. In addition, kanji in proper nouns can have lots of unpredictable
readings (sometimes referred to as [_nanori_
readings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanori)). There are so many place
names and person names having such special readings that even native Japanese
speakers often cannot read them.

