Real name: Damian

I have a Japanese friend who's been living in the states for 12 years, who swears that the katakana translation of my name is:
ダミアン

However, this isn't how my name is pronounced. This is how I type my name:
デミアン

She told me that when they make names, they translate relative to the letter, not to the pronounciation. I want to sign my name the way I want to; yet, when I go to Japan in a few months, I want to do what is traditional.

Any thoughts?

デミアン sounds right. 僕はデミアンと言います。

我侭の侍という　”俺様はデミアンと申す。”

It's your name, so it should be as you see fit. Now, they'll pronounce it as close to the kana should they read it in English. However, just say your name on how you should be called should be enough.

I don't think people are going to make too much of a fuss over one kana if you explain that it's more accurate for pronunciation. I lived in Japan right after college and officially registered my name as クリスティン. Everyone pronounced it "Christine," which began to be annoying after awhile, but it was too late as I had already made a name stamp and filled out all the documents. This time, I officially registered my name as クリステン. This seems to help with the pronunciation, but sometimes people misspell it as クリスティン, going by the English spelling. And I realized too late that I picked a bad spelling for Holly, which is now being pronounced "Who-lee." If you're concerned, why not get a few Japanese natives to pronounce the two versions for you, so you can be sure?

I did a little Google search-- you wouldn't be the only Damian / デミアン
http://search.varietyjapan.com/moviedb/p...08535.html
http://www.has-inc.co.jp/f_profile/steven_damian.html

Real name: Kester

katakana name: キャスタ
sounds cool even though it isn't entirely accurate

It's your name, so choose the katakana spelling/pronunciation you like and go with it.

I commonly see people spelling my name as ドジ, ドチ, ドッチ, ドッヂ, and ドッジ; however I prefer ドッジ and tell people such when the time comes. I've been at my schools for 1.5 years, and they still often spell my name differently (pick any of the above).

Ok, I agree. I'm going with デミアン.

When I went to Japan I rendered my name in kana as [kana]JAN[/kana], and everyone thought it was funny until I pointed out that [kana]JON[/kana] was pronounced "Joan", which is my mother's name. Then they didn't laugh so much.

Actually, since Damian is pronounced with a long /a/, I would transliterate it デーミアン.

Wouldn't Kester be ケスター? Just like "Thunder" becomes サンダー?

My name is easy. George transliterates into katakana or even kanji because it resembles ジョウジ, a real Japanese name.

One guy at my university is called デミアン by everyone, it should be okay.
What really sucks though is when people mispronounce your name, you tell them the correct pronounciation and the next day they will mispronounce it yet again. (ゼバスティアン vs. セバスチャン)
I wish my name did not exist in English.

My name is Temperance テンペランス　but my Japanese friends call me テンピ　for short. My Japanese girlfriend writes my shortened name 天日

At least yours isn't ブラク (Brock). If you don't know what it means look it up lol.

According to the internet, it means "badger". Is that so bad?

Actually, Japanese for Brock is タケシ, isn't it?

Raichu Wrote:According to the internet, it means "badger". Is that so bad?

Actually, Japanese for Brock is タケシ, isn't it?

部落民, I assume.

ENAMDIC gives ダミアン as its katakanaisation of "Damian". デミアン is apparently the Herman Hesse novel 'Demian' ...

If your name has a 'standard' katakanaisation I'd recommend going with it, because it will just make life easier (and it's not as if even a 'good' katakanaisation will result in close-to-original pronuncation). Not sure where "Damian" falls on that scale, but for something common like "Peter" it'd be a bit eccentric to pick anything except ピーター.

(But then even Americans don't quite pronounce my name right: the 't' comes out as a 'd' :-))

デイミエン would be your best bet, if it were me.

Speaking of names, would 双生 be acceptable to write in on a document?

smujohnson Wrote:デイミエン would be your best bet, if it were me.

"de i mi e n" would sound really weird, unless you meant ディミエン (which still sounds weird) or you put an extra syllable in the first part of his name.

Either way, the original way damichan wrote it, would likely be デミアン, which when said out loud sounds like the way everyone I've ever known named Damian actually says their name. Some people emphasize the first syllable a little more, and then you'd end up with テーミアン.

Like my name, Kirt. When mishmashed together into katakana, ends up as　カート because クーレト sounds completely stupid, and there is no way of turning the vowel sound in Kirt (pronounced:kərt, with a schwa) into anything intelligible in Japanese. Haha.

So you may call me by the other thing written this way in Japanese. I am a cart. Turns out I'm pretty popular in Japan anywhere you can buy things, and on the internet too. Right on the amazon.co.jp home page, for example. ^_____^

joxn_costello Wrote:When I went to Japan I rendered my name in kana as [kana]JAN[/kana], and everyone thought it was funny until I pointed out that [kana]JON[/kana] was pronounced "Joan", which is my mother's name. Then they didn't laugh so much.

Wouldn't Joan be ジョアン though?

Easiest name ever... "Ben"

Yeah, just pick the spelling you like and go with it. You should point out to your Japanese friend how bad Japanese names sound when pronounced in English due to Romaji not being a direct phonetic transliteration (wonder if that's the right terminology). And that making the same mistake when moving from English into Japanese is just silly.

Easiest example, Ichiro (often pronounced like "itcherow").

Some Japanese people have changed their names to have more accurate pronunciation. For example, Seattle Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima (Jojima -> Johjima)

Tobberoth Wrote:

joxn_costello Wrote:When I went to Japan I rendered my name in kana as [kana]JAN[/kana], and everyone thought it was funny until I pointed out that [kana]JON[/kana] was pronounced "Joan", which is my mother's name. Then they didn't laugh so much.

Wouldn't Joan be ジョアン though?

I'm not sure if the pronunciation differs per region, but in the midwest US Joan is pronounced "jone."

Maybe you're thinking of Joann?

ジョーン, I'd say. I'm ジョン, or ジョナサン, and it sounds nothing like a "Joan".

~J

As Ben_Nielson says, the "a" is a lengthener in "Joan", so [kana]JOAN[/kana] would be perversely literal. [kana]JO-N[/kana] would also be okay, I think.

The problem (as I see it) with "John" is that the vowel is actually an intermediate vowel that no combination of kana will get you, somewhere between "ah" and the "aw" in "jaw", but nothing (to my ears) like "jo" in [kana]kanojo[/kana].

Anyway, I'd argue that it's much like why you rarely see the romanizations "hu", "ti", "si", "zi" in English. There's a strong analytic argument for them, but no English speaker would pronounce them correctly, so they're not popular.

"Jon" is closer, but it's still not a clean fit, I agree.

~J

Raichu Wrote:According to the internet, it means "badger". Is that so bad?

Actually, Japanese for Brock is タケシ, isn't it?

Well yeah my romanized name means badger but Buraku is the common name for a highly discriminated social class in Japan lol. Quackingshoe got it.

Wouldn't it be ブロック?