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Im Chinese and my name is 陈依仁 (Chén Yī Rén). Can I use this as my Japanese name, and if so how do I read it in Japanese? Or would it be better to use the Katakana version of my English name which is タン・スジン?

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    「陳 依仁」(陈→陳)と書かれるでしょうね・・ 「[陳]{チン} [依]{イ}[仁]{ジン}」と読まれるでしょうね・・
    – chocolate
    Feb 28, 2018 at 0:11
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    Related, if not duplicate: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3013/… Feb 28, 2018 at 2:14
  • 「依仁」を「よりひと」とかいうふうに、中国人の名前を訓読みすることってあるんですかね?
    – chocolate
    Mar 6, 2018 at 7:36
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    Please use the contact form to merge your accounts. If you want to leave a comment on some answer, use the comment function rather than editing your question.
    – Earthliŋ
    Mar 14, 2018 at 8:54
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    Do not self-vandalize
    – Angelos
    Aug 14, 2022 at 2:01

5 Answers 5

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Yes you can of course, as many have said. However, I am not sure why nobody mentioned that you can also pretty much use the kanji in your name and just associate to them a Japanese pronunciation as well.

In fact, I think it's important to notice that when it comes to pronunciation Japanese is quite flexible (especially with proper names) and it is not uncommon to find kanji in names associated to very peculiar readings.

If I check a name dictionary, I can actually find tens of possible readings for 陳. Most are similar to チェン. For example you have じん、しょう、ちいん、ちぇん etc. However, I see also the more Japanese sounding のぼる (given name) or the kind of particular くわおつく (last name).

And actually, I can even find 依仁 with the reading よりひと (a given name).

Given that these records exists you can very well write your name using exactly the original kanji (except for using the traditional version of 陈) and simply say that it is pronounced (last name-first name):

くわおつく-よりひと

Or play around and find any other combination you like. Maybe くわおつく sounds a bit odd, but if you pick a more standard じん for example, I feel that じん-よりひと or read it the other way around よりひと-じん is quite a cool sounding name. :D

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    @Zanne lol, sorry I couldn't know that. Thanks for accepting my answer.. despite it came late and has less up votes to be honest I do also feel is maybe the closest answer to what you were actually asking. Let me think about a possible more girly name. By the way, if you switch Jin to be the first name, that in my dictionary is also indicated as a female first name. I mean after all just find a name dictionary look up the kanji and play around with the possible readings and combinations.
    – Tommy
    Mar 14, 2018 at 9:13
  • Is くわおつく really attested? I see it in online dictionaries but I can't find any occurrences of it on the Japanese Internet.
    – jogloran
    Aug 29, 2022 at 20:48
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Just from personal experience (purely anecdotal), I came across a few Chinese people who all used their original characters hanzi pretty regularly in work scenarios, normally without furigana (name badges, shift schedules, etc).

Anybody who sees your name written thus should know from your surname that you are not Japanese, they will likely ask you how to read it. The people I encountered would say the closest approximation of their name that the Japanese ear could decipher. I would recommend 「チェン・イーレン」.

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In the media, Chinese names are often read in a native Japanese way. For example, Xi Jinping (習近平) is read as 「シュウキンペイ」 instead of 「シージンピン」. In your case, your name would be read as 「チンイジン」, though in a work setting 「チェンイーレン」 might be better.

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Since we do not have Letter 陈 in Japanese, you might want to choose 陳 依仁 and read it ちん よりひと (Chin Yorihito). There was a prince named 依仁 (よりひと, Yorihito) about a hundred years ago.

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Although the plural of "anecdote" is not "data", there are examples of Chinese people using the same characters for their Japanese name (or making only slight changes). One example that readily comes to mind is the instant ramen inventor Ando Momofuku (安藤百福), whose Chinese name is Go Pek-Hok (吳百福).

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    So all the OP needs to do is marry a Japanese national and take her name like Mr. Ando did?
    – BJCUAI
    Feb 28, 2018 at 4:55
  • @BJCUAI this partially true, but 百福 does indeed come from his original Taiwanese name.
    – jarmanso7
    May 24, 2021 at 3:19

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