What are some of the funniest names you've seen (in kanji) for
Japanese people?

I talked to an 70-80 year old guy not too long ago at a community event.

His name is Hayashi.
On his name tag, it was written as 早死.

I burst out in laughter when I saw his name.
For those who don't know, his name means "early death".

What kind of parent in their right mind would ever name
their child "early death"?!!!!.....lol....

And even funnier is the fact that he's really old.
So obviously he's outlived his name....haha......

That is hilarious!
I met someone living in　a dorm room named 良（りょう）. (it sounds like 寮
That's the only funny name I have seen living in the States.

chamcham Wrote:What kind of parent in their right mind would ever name
their child "early death"?!!!!.....lol....

And even funnier is the fact that he's really old.
So obviously he's outlived his name....haha......

In many cultures throughout the world, especially in places with a high child mortality, children were deliberately given unlucky, unattractive or downright insulting names, so that the evil spirits would not want to take those children away. In Kazakhstan some of those names for boys were Besbay (bes means "five", so the implication is "live until you are five years old") and Kempirbay (kempir means "old hag"), and I also knew of a man who was born during the time of a major famine in the early 20th century, and his given name was Schmidt. The parents were probably hoping that the evil spirits would be like "WTF? Is this even a Kazakh child?" And he did survive into adulthood, unlike his older siblings with normal names who died before he was born, so it seems to have worked.

I do not know if the Japanese ever did anything like that though, but that is the only explanation I can think of.

Interesting...
In some Caribbean cultures, very old men adopt female names to "lose" the devil, so when he comes looking for them (with his list presumably) he doesn't know which is who...

Informational wars go a long way back...

well, the funniest name that I found was not a person's name but a bento companies name. They are called レーベン. I was trying to explain to my eikaiwa dude that I eat レーベン bentou everyday and he burst out laughing. I asked why and he then asked me why I would eat a frozen bentou? Get it? 冷弁　Get it? frozen bentou. hahahaha

What about 福味 (ふくみ)and 福祐(ふくゆう)？

Austin Powers anybody?

竹之下 is pretty funny if you put it in romaji and remove the last letter.

chamcham Wrote:What are some of the funniest names you've seen (in kanji) for
Japanese people?

I talked to an 70-80 year old guy not too long ago at a community event.

His name is Hayashi.
On his name tag, it was written as 早死.

I burst out in laughter when I saw his name.
For those who don't know, his name means "early death".

What kind of parent in their right mind would ever name
their child "early death"?!!!!.....lol....

And even funnier is the fact that he's really old.
So obviously he's outlived his name....haha......

Well, ハヤシ is a last name. It was probably his jest knowing well aware he's old and soon 早 to die 死. He was lucky to have you there. I don't think other Japanese guys gave him straight and cheerful responses like you did.

Kinki Vacation Packages and Hotel Deals

This reminds me of when Taro Aso was the PM.
My Japanese acquaintances often referred to him as the "as~hole".
I guess his policies were unpopular.

gyuujuice Wrote:I met someone living in　a dorm room named 良（りょう）. (it sounds like 寮
That's the only funny name I have seen living in the States.

りょう is very common.

Anyway, my (married) name is Yada (矢田） which foreigners always seem to get a kick out of.

I find it somewhat amusing that some Japanese people have kanjified Western names, like 恵梨香 (Erika) and 麻里奈 (Marina; bonus points for including the character 麻). I once tried to come up with the longest possible Western name that could be kanjified without altering its pronounciation too much, and the longest ones I got were Antonio (案戸仁尾?) and Antonia (案戸仁亜?).

OK. I know this thread is old.

But I'm watching Hamonepu (Japanese acapella competition show).

And there is one girl. Her father loves video games. So he decided
to name his daughter.............Mario (麻理緒、まりお)..........

*shakes head*

(http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xiw5ir_...-4-5_music)
2 minutes 14 seconds into the video

PS: Bonus points to her dad for using 麻 in her name.

I think it's funny that there's a Japanese celebrity whose last name essentially means swamp ass.

There's a Japanese baseball player who plays in the US, 福留 孝介 (Fukudome Kousuke).
You can imagine how much laughter that caused the first time he played there.

chamcham Wrote:PS: Bonus points to her dad for using 麻 in her name.

Why do people keep saying this? 麻 is not a rare character in names at all.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Why do people keep saying this? 麻 is not a rare character in names at all.

Because Rikaichan says it's cannabis. And drugs are cool.

I've met some one named シルク written 絹.

Asriel Wrote:

yudantaiteki Wrote:Why do people keep saying this? 麻 is not a rare character in names at all.

Because Rikaichan says it's cannabis. And drugs are cool.

Rikaichan is wrong, then. 麻 means "hemp" or "flax", and the kanji isn't really directly related to marijuana -- 麻薬 is any kind of narcotic, and 麻酔 is the standard term for anesthetic. I'm pretty sure most Japanese people would not associate the kanji 麻 primarily with marijuana.

EDIT: The famous poet 柿本人麻呂 uses it as well.

(And actually I have to retract what I said, translating 麻 as "cannabis" is not wrong, but it's kind of a technical botany term since it's the genus "cannabis" which includes a lot of plants, only some of which can be used to make marijuana.)

麻 is used as the phonetic indictor in a bunch of other kanji pronounced ま （魔、摩、磨、嘛、痲）, so I think it's fair to guess that it's just being used as a phonetic in names.

vonPeterhof Wrote:I find it somewhat amusing that some Japanese people have kanjified Western names, like 恵梨香 (Erika) and 麻里奈 (Marina; bonus points for including the character 麻).

Who says they're Western names?

yudantaiteki Wrote:Rikaichan is wrong, then.

Yep, I know...things like this come up from time to time. It doesn't help that RtK gave it the keyword "hemp," which also isn't necessarily drug-related, but many people (in the US at least?) seem to have that idea.

I think this is a good point to keep in mind when talking about the faults of edict, and how it shouldn't be your main dictionary...

nadiatims Wrote:麻 is used as the phonetic indictor in a bunch of other kanji pronounced ま （魔、摩、磨、嘛、痲）, so I think it's fair to guess that it's just being used as a phonetic in names.

According to here it means the plant, thread from the plant or it is seasonal refering to summer.

yeah I know the kanji 麻. I'm saying it's used as a phonetic in those other kanji, and in names I doubt people are using it for it's plant/thread related meaning. Though they could be using it as 季語 referral to summer I guess. I wasn't aware of that nuance.

'大麻' is marijuana.