46
votes
Accepted
How can I tell if a Japanese person's given name is male or female?
There are a number of common suffixes you can use to try to guess. Here is an incomplete list of common suffixes which are a pretty safe bet:
Female
ko 子
mi 美
ka 花・華
e 江・恵
na 奈・菜
no 乃
ri 里
Male
rō ...
- 47.9k
38
votes
Accepted
= sign in a katakana name
It's a double hyphen, not an equals sign.
One of its uses is when transliterating names that have a hyphen in them. This is to avoid confusion with the extended sound symbol (ー) in Japanese. For ...
- 8,469
19
votes
How do attendance checklists in Japan deal with multiple possible name readings?
It's like this:
Teacher: 「野田{のだ} 努{つとむ}さん。」
野田: 「はい。」
T: 「いわい 隆{たかし}さんですかね？しゅくさんですか？」(the surname reads 祝)
祝: 「はふりです。」
T: 「はふりって読むんですか。珍しい名前ですね。はふり たかしさん。」
祝: 「はい。」
This conversation has ...
- 774
19
votes
孫悟飯 - Songohan, why non-Japanese say it comes from "gohan = meal/cooked rice"?
It's a pun. In fact, many, many of Dragonball's characters are puns on food (or food-related) items:
サイヤ人 Saiyajin from [ヤサイ]{野菜}人 "vegetable people"
ベジータ Vegeta from ベジタブル "vegetable"
ウーロン Oolong ...
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19
votes
Accepted
Can "Yutaka Umeda" (name of a Japanese mayor) be read as "Jo Baiden"?
According to the town's official website, the mayor of Yamato-cho, Kumamoto is indeed named Yutaka Umeda.
https://www.town.kumamoto-yamato.lg.jp/kiji0035130/index.html
The kanji for his name is 梅田 (...
- 3,084
16
votes
Can I use my Chinese name as my Japanese name?
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 ...
- 7,170
15
votes
Accepted
Is it always necessary to ask how someone's name is pronounced if you encounter it first in writing?
Part A
常用漢字{じょうようかんじ} (Jōyō Kanji) and 人名用漢字{じんめいようかんじ} (Jinmeiyō Kanji) are two separate and non-overlapping lists, but Kanji used in a person's name can be from either list. 常用漢字 are the most ...
- 7,351
13
votes
Accepted
How is Tsuyuri Kumin's name (五月七日くみん) read with 3 characters when it's made up of 4 kanji?
Say we have a Japanese word that has a meaning, and we want to write it using kanji. If we cannot find any corresponding character, we have the option of combining characters and assigning the ...
- 306
12
votes
How do attendance checklists in Japan deal with multiple possible name readings?
Well I don't know about school per se, but every form I've seen so far (Foreign registration, tax, social security, subscription to various utilities...) asks you to not only write your name, but ...
- 2,716
12
votes
Accepted
Does 'yuki' really mean happiness?
Does 'yuki' really mean happiness?
I feel like this is a loaded question, so let's break it down.
The character 幸 means "happiness".
If the name ゆき is written using this kanji, then it also means "...
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11
votes
Why do some Japanese people write parts of their name in hiragana?
I guess your coworker uses hiragana の simply because it is easier to write and 野 is very common in surnames and the natural guess for の.¹
Hiragana (or katakana) or variant kanji may also be used in ...
- 47.9k
11
votes
Accepted
Why do some Japanese people write parts of their name in hiragana?
This phenomenon mainly occurs in orthodox brand/shop names. Quite a few traditional-style Japanese restaurants are officially named like もり川【かわ】 and 三【み】むら, even though 森【もり】 and 村【むら】 are not ...
- 301k
11
votes
Accepted
Translate German name "Markus" to Japanese
Both マルクス and マーカス are common transcriptions of the name Markus or Marcus.
Roughly speaking you can think of マルクス as a more German/Scandinavian-sounding transcription and マーカス as a more English-...
- 47.9k
10
votes
Accepted
How do attendance checklists in Japan deal with multiple possible name readings?
First, even native Japanese adults can correctly guess the reading of the kanji names of, say, only 90% of students, at most. Quite a few people have names (either first names or surnames) with really ...
- 301k
10
votes
Accepted
What does the letter 'P' at the end of an author's pseudonym mean?
That P (simply read ピー) stands for プロデューサー ("Producer"). Traditionally, P has been used like a name suffix for a super-high executive in the showbiz/broadcasting/anime industry (someone even ...
- 301k
10
votes
Accepted
Can an odachi be called a katana?
刀 ("katana") as a Japanese word refers to (usually thin) single-edged swords in general, not swords in general. Etymologically, "kata" means "single". Double-edged swords ...
- 301k
9
votes
As a foreigner with a Japanese name, what are the implications of writing my name in katakana or kanji?
This sounds tautological, but the fact is, having a foreign-looking name in this largely homogeneous country strongly signals that you are foreign. A big question is whether you want to be ...
- 7,013
9
votes
Accepted
What is the Japanese meaning of the name "Kakka"?
"Kakka" is far from popular; it's virtually nonexistent as a Japanese person name.
But there is a word 閣下 ("kakka"), which is a word used to address heads of government/state. It's like English "Your ...
- 301k
9
votes
Accepted
Can 亞 be a simplification of 亜?
Several points
the second-to-last character in 東亞学園バレㅡ部 is U+3161 HANGUL LETTER EU (from Korean), it should be ー U+30FC KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED SOUND MARK. This is probably why Google Translate ...
- 47.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Naming suffix -氏 (-し) used by an otaku character in anime
Is it otaku version of -さん?
Yes...sort of.
Originally, -氏【し】 is a honorific and highly formal name suffix used to refer to someone with high social status. There are several existing questions ...
- 301k
9
votes
Why would parents ever want to name their daughters with the following names?
膣子 and 醜子 are not real person names. They may be possible as funny pen names or such, but for real person names, they are out of the question. I doubt a local government will accept registrations of ...
9
votes
Does the name Yoshi from Super Mario mean anything?
According to ヨッシー in Japanese Wikipedia:
「ヨッシー」という命名は、任天堂社員のあだ名に由来。
(Translation: The name ヨッシー derived from a nickname of a Nintendo employee.)
So ヨッシー was the nickname of a real person in Nintendo....
- 301k
8
votes
As a foreigner with a Japanese name, what are the implications of writing my name in katakana or kanji?
I'll migrate my answer from the comments and add a bit.
Overall, I do believe that it's totally down to the individual how they write their name, especially so in Japanese. On the whole, foreigners, ...
- 3,333
8
votes
Is there any Japanese language reason why Google Maps hyphenates some names and not others?
Seeing Ikeno-Ue I'll venture a guess and say that there is no reason why Google Maps hyphenates some place names and not others.
Here ノ is the particle の and I would say that hyphenation of 池ノ上 ike ...
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8
votes
Why are Japanese personal names pronounced the same but written differently?
The reason is that parents choose the kanji for their meaning. Depending on the kanji chosen, the suggested meaning is different, for example
美智子 — "beautiful wise child"
美千子 — "child of a thousand ...
- 47.9k
8
votes
Accepted
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