Nichiren’s name derives in part from his understanding of the “Transcendent Powers” chapter as foretelling that the bodhisattvas of the earth would appear at the beginning of the Final Dharma age. In premodern Japan, as in other cultures, it was common to change one’s name on entering a new stage of life or undergoing some transformative experience. Nichiren’s childhood name is said to have been Yakuō-maro. When he was first ordained, he assumed the monastic name Renchō. After reaching the insight that the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra is the sole path of liberation in the Final Dharma age, he changed his name to Nichiren (“Sun Lotus”). The concluding verse section of [The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas] chapter reads in part, “As the light of the sun and moon eliminates the darkness, these people practicing in the world will extinguish the blindness of sentient beings.” In the Chinese text, “these people,” the subject of this sentence, can be read either in the plural, as Kubo and Yuyama translate it, or in the singular, as Nichiren took it, that is, as referring to anyone – particularly himself, but also his followers – who took upon themselves the task of the Buddha’s original disciples to propagate the Lotus Sūtra in the Final Dharma age. As he comments:

Calling myself Nichiren (Sun Lotus) means that I awakened by myself to the buddha vehicle. That may sound as though I am boasting of my wisdom, but I say so for a reason. The sūtra reads, “As the light of the sun and moon eliminates the darkness. …” Think well about what this passage means. “These people practicing in the world” means that in the first five hundred years of the Final Dharma age, the bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacaritra will appear and illuminate the darkness of ignorance and defilements with the light of the five characters of Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō. As the bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacaritra’s envoy, I have urged all people of Japan to accept and uphold the Lotus Sūtra; that is what this passage refers to. The sūtra then goes on to say, “The wise … should preserve this sūtra after my nirvāṇa. Those people will be resolute and will unwaveringly follow the buddha path.” Those who become my disciples and lay followers should understand that we share a profound karmic relationship and spread the Lotus Sūtra as I do.