It actually makes sense.
Satoshi Nakamoto was most probably not a Japanese person, so the nickname likely found its source in some English / Latin letter word.
So the actual path is from "Hal Finney" to the hiragana/katakana lookalike and back to the romaji (English character) equivalent.
It is 100% what a geek and cypherpunk of the 80's would do.
And Hal Finney always was one of the most credible candidates to be Satoshi Nakamoto.