Proper nouns are usually 2-3 letters long, as in 白紙, 鶏白湯, 赤子, etc. Kun-yomi(Chinese borrowed) single letter nouns e.g. 碁, 本, 金 are rare so two-letter matches sort of take priority by heuristics, most common of which is 吐く…

The spoken language encodes hints in tones so homophones aren’t necessarily “homo” phones - Haku used as verb and as a name, or kuma as in bears and as in black spots under eyes, are pronounced slightly differently. If you listen really closely you might notice “ha” in Hali’s name is pronounced slightly stronger.