Before my husband and I found out the gender of our child, we began thinking of possible male and female names because we both knew it wasn't going to be a simple task. Being in an intercultural relationship, our upmost goal is to respect both cultures. In our case, it's Japanese and American (African American). Therefore, at least in the beginning, we both agreed that we wanted our child's name to somehow be a bridge between both cultures.
As we dove deeper into the name game, however, I noticed that my husband and I were considering very different things when it came to choosing a name. I found it interesting just how much thought Japanese people put into choosing a name for their child. Therefore, I decided to ask him in more detail about his process! If you're interested in knowing how we narrowed down the name for our child, keep reading!
CHOOSING A NAME THAT WORKS IN BOTH JAPAN AND AMERICA
My husband and I first researched names that could work in both America and Japan. This meant that the sounds were similar or the name had a close equivalent in the opposite country. For example, a popular Japanese female name is "Hana". The Western equivalent name can be "Hannah". We came up with about four female names and four male names that have this pattern. We then slept on it. I thought more about the sounds and whether I liked them, but my husband was thinking about a list of other things, such as how it will be written in Japanese.
CHOOSING A KANJI/SPELLING
The Japanese language has three writing systems with one of them being called "Kanji". Kanji are adopted Chinese characters and there are over 1,000 of these characters. For example, the word "Hana" means "flower", which is why it is also a popular name. The character for the word "Hana" is "花". However, the unique thing about Kanji is that there are several other symbols that can be combined to create the sound "Hana". For example, if you combine this kanji "初", which is pronounced "hatsu" and this kanji "夏" , which is pronounced "natsu", you can create "HatsuNatsu" or "Hana".
You might be thinking this isn't anything foreign, and you are right! Americans often do this as well! For example, if we take the name "Cameron". There are many different combination of letters to achieve the same sound, such as Camren, Camron, Camryn, Kameron, Kamron and Kamryn.
As you know, some spellings are more popular than others, and some people definitely cross the line with weird spellings. This was something that he really wanted to avoid.
HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE THAT?
Let's take a look at this name: "Kviiilyn". You pronounce that name "Kaitlyn". Instead of "ait", they used the roman numerals for "eight/VIII". Although Japan is generally a conservative country, some parents have decided to give their children really unique spellings to normal names in order to create their own meaning. Although "Hana" is a very common name, it is also considered kind of old fashion and boring. So, parents try to liven it up by using different characters. This phenomenon is called "Kira Kira names".
What's an example of a kira kira name in Japanese? Well, let's go back to "Hana". Someone named their child "Hana", but instead of using the very common character that I introduced before (花), they instead combined two Kanji: 初+夏. The first kanji is pronounce "Hatsu" and the second Kanji is pronounced "Natsu". Hatsu means first/early and Natsu means summer. So, the name no longer means "Flower", as it now means "early summer". Many Japanese people won't immediately recognize "初夏" as being pronounced as Hana, which is why it's considered a "kira kira" name.
So, what's wrong with unique spellings? Well, as I said, Japan is mostly conservative, so many people assume that the parents who named the child are not educated or were too careless. They may also assume that the parents are "selfish" or only cared about the "aesthetic" of the name. For example, one of the most popular "Kira Kira" names is "心愛", this name uses two very pretty characters: "heart" and "love". The most common way to pronounce these two Kanji together would be "Shinai", but "Shinai" is definitely not a Japanese name, so how do you pronounce it?
That's the problem. Only the parents know how to pronounce these Kira Kira names! So, in this case, the parents pronounce it as "Cocoa", yes, like the chocolate! The first kanji can be pronounced "Shin" or "kokoro" and the second Kanji is pronounced as "Ai". So, they took "koko" from kokoro and "a" from ai to create "Kokoa"! Cocoa is also not a Japanese name, but at least the characters are cute, right?
Wrong. Many kids with these kind of names get bullied by peers, and even adults look down on the parents. In America, unique names are more easily accepted, but in Japan, thinking outside of the box often goes unrewarded.
Nevertheless, According to the Ministry of Justice, there are about 2,000 common kanji characters and 1,000 that can be used for names. Also, there are two other writing systems that Japanese people can use to write Japanese names. Japanese people cannot, however, use Roman Letters or Arabic Numerals, but they can use Kanji numbers in names. There is also no restriction on how many characters you can use, so, in theory, your child's name can be a sentence or a poem as well.
Since the Family Registration Law does not place any restrictions on how to read names, "kira kira" names are totally legal and will be accepted under the law! After living here for a while, however, you will notice it is often society that makes it hard for people to be unique, not the law.
WHAT DOES YOUR NAME MEAN?
My name is Angela, and so it's kind of easy to derive that my name means "Angel", but many Americans haven't a clue as to what their names mean. This is the opposite case in Japan. Due to the nature of Kanji, you can often look at the name and guess the meaning.
Many Japanese people choose Kanji that can represent their wish for the child. For example, if a Japanese person named their child "Daisuke", they can use the Kanji "大輔", which means "great help". Therefore, we can imagine that they hope their child that can be of great help to others or the world when they grow up.
So, once we chose a name that we both liked, my husband went on a search to find Kanji that represented our hope and wish for the child.
BALANCE
Another point my husband considered was "balance" between the surname and given name. Many Japanese people worry about how many characters are in a name. For example, if the surname is three characters, the name might be considered too long if the given name is also three characters. On the other hand, if the surname is only one character, and the first name is also one character, then the name seems to short.
This also extends to the amount of "strokes" in a character, or how many times you lift the pencil off of the paper. So, for example, in Roman Letters, the Letter "A" would be considered to have 3 strokes. So, the balance would be considered off if the name has too many strokes, and also the balance is off if the name has too few strokes!
Remember when we chose a Kanji? Well, if the full name has too many similar looking Kanji, the balance is considered off as well!!
GOOD LUCK
Last but not least, my husband considered luck. Luck is usually determined numerically by how many "strokes" are in a name. This method is called "五格". The number of strokes in the first and last name are combined in various ways and the numbers relate to five categories that influence a persons personality, destiny, and luck. It's a bit complicated and there are a lot of books that relate on the topic and help people choose a lucky name.
Although the tradition of considering all of these elements when choosing a name are waning in Japan, I thought it was really interesting how much goes into it! I am completely happy with the name we chose for our child and I hope that they like it too!
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