I love learning kanji, so I thought about taking the kanken (probably level
6). So I started to look for information here and there, and it seems I'll
have to learn radical names.

I'm totally fine with that, but my problem is: which name to learn ? Let's
take 乙 for example: should I learn 乙部{おつぶ}, or simply 乙{おつ}. But in that case,
I found quite a lot of other names: おつにょう (well, I suppose this one is only if
the radical is used as a nyou part of a kanji), つりばり (this one seems to be for
the 乚 variant) or れ (seems to be for 乚 again) ? Or again for 丨: should I learn
丨部{こんぶ}, ぼう or たてぼう?
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2015-01-25T17:28:47.447
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kanji
Which radical name should I study for the kanken?
Last I checked, Kanken doesn't test on the **names** of any radicals, just
knowledge of which element of a particular kanji _is_ the radical. The names
are just for your own memorization. Call them whatever you want, though
knowing a few of the common ones can be useful for talking with Japanese
people about particular kanji.
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2016-12-18T19:13:21.353
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answer
The Kanken tests don't require you to write the name of the radical, instead
they give a multiple choice of radical names, and for each radical, where
alternative names exist, the test gives all of the alternative names for each
radical. In practice it's mostly fairly easy to identify which one is which,
and you don't need to remember all of the exact names. [![Kanken from
2017](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uILh7.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uILh7.jpg)
The thing which they test for, and the thing which is sometimes difficult, is
whether you can identify the radical of each kanji, so the thing you need to
know is "what is the official radical of this kanji according to
Kanken/Monbusho" rather than being able to reproduce the names.
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2020-03-01T22:03:33.617
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On differing names: Radicals and it's names is a wide subject, and such this
topics require to have in mind that grammar and its nomenclature evolves
through time (as the language itself). In linguistics, this kind of issue pops
up all the time, and to explain the variations we have to look back at the
language history (this approach is called diachronic). With that in mind,
let's say that some times some scholars seems to prefer a specific
nomenclature and classification pattern, and sometimes they prefer others.
Once your objective is the Kanken test, we do not need to explain the
variations so let's take a look of how they behave in modern japanese.(this
approach is called synchronic).

On the radicals names: You seemed to ask generally about the names of all
radicals, but because there are plenty, I'll just treat the examples you've
highlighted. The 乙、乚 and the 丨

乙 is called おつ。おつにょう, as you've suspected, refers to 乙繞, 繞 being the radicals
written from the left to the bottom. (like 辶) 乚 is the same radical when
written in the right (like a 旁「つくり」, but it'is not), but once this radical
comes the representation of "something that obstructs the growing of other
something", traditionally it as been read just as another form of 乙, in fact
they have the same name. Both of them are おつ, but maybe that's why when
referring to 乙、usually、one would say おつにょう。 About 乙部 「おつぶ」this is not the
traditional name of the radical, indeed it is not hard to find it, but it's as
an abbreviation of 乙繞部首 "the radical otsu" As the Grammatical terms usually
require kanji with lots of strokes, it is common to abbreviate the
nomenclature (e.g. like the informal classical verbs conjugation: サ行変格活用ー＞サ変)

In fact we could generalize that no radical has 部 in the end of it's name.
Whenever we find it, we must read it as an abbreviation of the grammatical
nomenclature. The same goes for 丨 the name can be either ぼう or たてぼう. [![Kanken
Level 6 preparatory book
appendix](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EyHdR.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EyHdR.jpg)

But as your aim is the Kanken test, (maybe) you should not worry too much
about it (for taking the test), because just as @Ben's answer well shows, the
kanken test do not demand you to write the radical name. Another point is that
maybe you might not study all radicals starting from the ones with less
strokes, FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE TEST. Once every level of Kanken has a
predefined list of kanji (that goes with the japanese scholar years, level 6
corresponding to 5th grade) maybe sticking to this list could be way more
effective.

For the Kanken test, I strongly recommend you the preparatory book series
published by the very Kanken Association. ([![Kanken level 6 preparatory book
cover](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yWxcD.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yWxcD.jpg))
They have a book for every level.

I have answered based on my personal experience with the help of the kanji
practice manual 漢字学習ステップ published by 日本漢字能力検定協会、the japanese kanji dictionary
例解学習漢字辞典 published by 小学館、and by the japanese language dictionary 広辞苑
published by 岩波書店。

Good luck!
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2020-05-01T20:37:03.353
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