however, saitama written in hiragana (さいたま市) actually finished in second place in public polling to saitama written in kanji (埼玉市). despite this, government officials decided to name the new city saitama in hiragana, not kanji. in third place in the poll was ōmiya (大宮市). in fourth was saitama (彩玉市), written with an alternative kanji for "sai" (彩) which means "colorful". the "sai" (埼) used in the prefectural name is a rare form of a common character (崎) that means cape or promontory.