If someone says,
あなた は Chris-さん です か。
Are you Chris?
Do you answer
Chris です
Or
Chris-さん です
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3This is actually a border-line dupe: When should one add -san at the end of a name?– Tsuyoshi ItoCommented Jun 6, 2011 at 21:44
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2 Answers
Chris です。
さん is never used (except jokingly perhaps) to refer to oneself. The same goes for other common endings such as くん, ちゃん, さま, 先輩 and 先生.
That's because these endings usually convey a kind of relation: for instance, さま conveys respect, くん and ちゃん convey some endearment and while さん conveys very little meaning, it does convey separation. You can't use さん on yourself because it's pointless to specify your relation to yourself. And this is even truer for the other endings.
answered Jun 6, 2011 at 20:53
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Fantastic answer! I thought it was without, but I really needed to confirm. Thankyou.– ChrisCommented Jun 6, 2011 at 21:04
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4Yeah, it's understandable. As far as I can tell, in English you can quote and say "Yeah, I'm Mr. so-and-so." - but that doesn't seem to work in Japanese. Commented Jun 6, 2011 at 21:12
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Adding my two cents: The only people I've heard say "[Own name]さん" were men over 60 when introducing themselves. I'm not sure if it was a joke, but no one laughed. Commented Sep 24, 2014 at 1:23
Unless it is some sort of elaborate joke, you should not put -さん after your name.
Maybe a story could be helpful...
Once when writing the minutes (議事録 gijiroku) of a meeting, I had to write the list of the participants at the meeting. I wrote it like this, and then sent the email.
●●さん
●●さん
Wallyさん
As soon I sent this email, the reaction from my coworkers was: "LOL, he put さん to his own name". And tons of 指摘 shiteki afterwards.
So yeah, you should never put -san after your name unless you're trying to be funny. If you want to try to be funny, send an email within the mailing list to another coworker without putting -san to his name. Lots of shiteki guaranteed.
