In the anime K-On there is a character named 山中 さわ子. Does this kind of thing (personal names that contain both kana and kanji) occur in real life, or is this another example of anime being unrealistic? I liked to imagine that the reason behind that name is similar to the one behind the S in "Harry S. Truman" - the parents could not agree on a set of kanji for さわこ (佐和子, 早輪子, 沢子, etc.)/wanted to please two different relatives by naming their daughter after them, so they decided against assigning specific kanji for さわ.

On a related note, is having kana in one's name even legal for a natural-born Japanese citizen? I have noticed that there are many Japanese celebrities (and fictional characters) whose given names are always written in hiragana or, in rarer cases, katakana. Could those be their official birth names, or are they all pseudonyms? Is having an all-kanji name a legal requirement, or are kana names just as acceptable on official documents?

It happens in real life. I know someone named かおり with no kanji. Kanji is not a legal requirement -- some older women have katakana in their names; it was apparently a fad for a while.

It seems like it's mostly women who have all kana personal names, but I could be wrong. Is it because kana has a "softer" appearance than kanji?

Yeah, it is mostly women. There are also male mangaka like 美水かがみ and 小箱とたん, but they are probably just using the katakana versions of their given names as pen names.

Sometimes parents pick kana names instead of kanji because of Japanese astrology. The kanji strokes need to add up to "lucky" numbers.

kusterdu Wrote:It seems like it's mostly women who have all kana personal names, but I could be wrong. Is it because kana has a "softer" appearance than kanji?

yes, it's too soft for guys, but not uncommon for girls

My exgirlfriends were named さくら子 and なぎさ

Now I'm dating a girl with kanji.... See if there is a love conspiracy or not...

かをり　is the name that I like best.

kapalama Wrote:かをり　is the name that I like best.

wow never knew that one

(well used in that way I mean)

Womacks23 Wrote:My exgirlfriends were named さくら子 and なぎさ

Now I'm dating a girl with kanji.... See if there is a love conspiracy or not...

kanji is better!!!(well I guess it's just a personal preference for me...)

ta12121 Wrote:

kapalama Wrote:かをり　is the name that I like best.

wow never knew that one

(well used in that way I mean)

眞鍋 かをり Manabe Kaori is the famous person with this name.

And according to J wikipedia that is actually her real name.

kapalama Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:

kapalama Wrote:かをり　is the name that I like best.

wow never knew that one

(well used in that way I mean)

眞鍋 かをり Manabe Kaori is the famous person with this name.

And according to J wikipedia that is actually her real name.

ouch I couldn't read that. I guess that's the problem with names, the kanji readings associated with it are sometimes really rare.
I'm thinking of making an anki deck for a database of 30,000 japanese kanji names. (Forgot what site that it was posted on, but I just want something to refer to)
I don't plan on memorizing so much names. My goal is probably common 1000 names or something.

There's a deck for that somewhere (already) (on this forum I mean).

EratiK Wrote:There's a deck for that somewhere (already) (on this forum I mean).

I know of the one on anki for 500 common surnames. I've srsed that already.
There is another deck on this forum?

I spent a while trying to figure out what 水木しげる meant until I realised it was a person's name.

Yes, sorry, my mistake, looks like chamcham's is the only one available (1 000 is a catchier number).

Anyways, Sebastian posted a link to the 9 000 most frequent surnames, maybe you can use that for your next deck.
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...9#pid85849

And chamcham said he (she?) would upgrade hiers, like, last year. Hasn't s/he?

EratiK Wrote:Yes, sorry, my mistake, looks like Cham Cham's is the only one available (1 000 is a catchier number).

Anyways, Sebastian posted a link to the 9 000 most frequent surnames, maybe you can use that for your next deck.
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...9#pid85849

And Cham Cham said he (she?) would upgrade hiers, like, last year. Hasn't s/he?

thanks, I'll see what I can do

ta12121 Wrote:眞鍋 かをり Manabe Kaori is the famous person with this name.
...
ouch I couldn't read that. I guess that's the problem with names, the kanji readings associated with it are sometimes really rare.

The substitution of the old form in names is very very common, and since 'Truth' is a prime virtue in any culture, that one definitely one to learn. 真 becomes 眞　even as a primitive. 槙 is also written 槇, 慎 is also written 愼, etc. Japanese people apparently don't even notice the change since I have asked and until I point out that the Kanji is different they do not even notice.

真鍋＝眞鍋　

浜口=濱口 　(濱　is a common name variant of 浜)

Male First names are a nightmare because you never hear them, and often the reading has nothing to do with the Kanji anyway. (My favorite comedy line from a Japanese TV show: 'My name is 山本武, and it is read "Cream Cheese" '. Which show a lot more awareness of the arbitrary nature of name readings than Japanese people usually have.)

But a big problem is just getting used to it. Mississippi, Tennessee, Roethlisberger, Minneapolis are daunting to a non US person, but completely transparent to a native American.

kapalama Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:眞鍋 かをり Manabe Kaori is the famous person with this name.
...
ouch I couldn't read that. I guess that's the problem with names, the kanji readings associated with it are sometimes really rare.

The substitution of the old form in names is very very common, and since 'Truth' is a prime virtue in any culture, that one definitely one to learn. 真 becomes 眞　even as a primitive. 槙 is also written 槇, 慎 is also written 愼, etc. Japanese people apparently don't even notice the change since I have asked and until I point out that the Kanji is different they do not even notice.

真鍋＝眞鍋　

浜口=濱口 　(濱　is a common name variant of 浜)

Male First names are a nightmare because you never hear them, and often the reading has nothing to do with the Kanji anyway. (My favorite comedy line from a Japanese TV show: 'My name is 山本武, and it is read "Cream Cheese" '. Which show a lot more awareness of the arbitrary nature of name readings than Japanese people usually have.)

But a big problem is just getting used to it. Mississippi, Tennessee, Roethlisberger, Minneapolis are daunting to a non US person, but completely transparent to a native American.

That's true, I've noticed the variants for kanjis. As for the naming, yea there is a lot of obscure readings, that I wouldn't know at all. I probably only know a few dozen common names, that I can read.

kapalama Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:眞鍋 かをり Manabe Kaori is the famous person with this name.
...
ouch I couldn't read that. I guess that's the problem with names, the kanji readings associated with it are sometimes really rare.

The substitution of the old form in names is very very common, and since 'Truth' is a prime virtue in any culture, that one definitely one to learn. 真 becomes 眞　even as a primitive. 槙 is also written 槇, 慎 is also written 愼, etc. Japanese people apparently don't even notice the change since I have asked and until I point out that the Kanji is different they do not even notice.

真鍋＝眞鍋　

浜口=濱口 　(濱　is a common name variant of 浜)

Male First names are a nightmare because you never hear them, and often the reading has nothing to do with the Kanji anyway. (My favorite comedy line from a Japanese TV show: 'My name is 山本武, and it is read "Cream Cheese" '. Which show a lot more awareness of the arbitrary nature of name readings than Japanese people usually have.)

But a big problem is just getting used to it. Mississippi, Tennessee, Roethlisberger, Minneapolis are daunting to a non US person, but completely transparent to a native American.

I love how you just threw 'Roethlisberger' in there. ;p

nest0r Wrote:I love how you just threw 'Roethlisberger' in there. ;p

i'm also pretty sure it's not easy for a non-football fan to remember.

i also like how you said "threw."
guess he was going for a hail mary there

kainzero Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:I love how you just threw 'Roethlisberger' in there. ;p

i'm also pretty sure it's not easy for a non-football fan to remember.

i also like how you said "threw."
guess he was going for a hail mary there

It actually came up with a Japanese person who speaks English well. She had seen state names, but Roethlisberger (who has been all over ESPN in the last few months) just trips her up, because she tries to deal with it letter by letter.

'How do you people remember that?' she asked. I laughed because I don't even know how to spell it (had to look it up to write it), but I have heard it and said it many many times.

No native US person would really have trouble with it, since they don't actually read it letter by lettter. Hear it once, and then it's just a Gestalt recognition. They probably can't spell it though. (Or for that matter Japanese people maybe cannot write 眞 or 濱 even though they read speak them no problem.)

On the other hand, US Mainland football announcer have real problems with names like Brandon Manumaleuna. Living in Hawaii means I get to see how badly people from the mainland US deal with pretty easy places names like Kamehameha, Liliuokalani, Likelike, Moanalua. But these are just names we don't even think about.

But I still cannot remember Cherry Chevapravatdumrong even though I see it on the Family Guy credits all the time.

Quote:Kamehameha

Ruthless burger. (?)

nest0r Wrote:Ruthless burger. (?)

Also Rapistburger, Rapistbungler, etc