I both study the language and am writing a novel in the early Meiji era and wanted try to maintain some accuracy to names and culture as much as I can.
My main character is a noble sur-named warrior in hiding, so the idea is he decided to change his last name to go on course with the new age and better hide himself when a bunch of commoners began openly speaking their full name.
My character’s new last name is “Hanagashina”/花が品/”Flowers are Good”, and I personally have become attached to it (and frankly it fits with the intents of my character).
My only concern lies within “が” because it’s the conjunction of the name, I kanjigated it as small as possible, and I haven’t seen many names with more than 2 kanji.
Anyway, considering the dawn of the Meiji era was a cultural clash of New laws and ideals, and many types of names came into play at the time, I was hoping that my main character’s last name still fell in a socially acceptable place, and wouldn’t stand too out in the context of the story, and the general context of Japanese culture.
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and answer. 🙂
3 comments
No, hiragana aren’t used in surname.
Also, it sounds nothing like a surname, ESPECIALLY for a commoner.
田中 or something is more realistic.
The most common Japanese surnames are the most COMMON for a reason.
Realistically he’d name himself 田中二郎 or something.
Names like you see in manga are incredibly unrealistic.
Look up names of actual Meiji era people, especially those from a common background.
品 means goods as in ‘trade goods’ btw. not good; I don’t think that’s what you meant.
Hana ga Shina doesn’t even make sense does it? What’s shina/しな? (Never heard of it, dictionary also has nothing unless you meant 品 as in goods and took good from that)
Also yeah as others have said conjunctions are a big no for names, like that’s not a name or anything close to one, it’s just a statement. Don’t let the ‘no spaces’ fool you that’s just a 3 word sentence (counting が as it translates to its own word in Eng)