Hi there, guys. I’m 15 years old.
I’m gonna be moving soon to Japan due to my father being requested to move there to fulfill a specific job role on the company that he works. I’m trying my best to learn as much Japanese as possible on these next 6 months, since we’re moving to stay there and probably grow roots. I only know how to speak my mother tongue and English for the moment tho.
The main problem is a friend of mine said the sound of my name (in other words the “pronunciation of my name”) can be confused with something bad on Japanese.
My name is Caius. My surname is Valor.
It may look like weird names to americans and japanese ppl, but they’re rather common among the Latin/Old Roman names…really…
If it’s true that my proper name and family name have unpleasant sounds, should I assume a different japanese name while attending to school and meeting other people?
12 comments
Well how do you pronounce them？
If Caius is pronounced like this pope, then it’s カイウス
[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A6%E3%82%B9_(%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E6%95%99%E7%9A%87)](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A6%E3%82%B9_(%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E6%95%99%E7%9A%87))
If Valor is pronounced like this person, then it’s ヴァロール
[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A1%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A4%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A7%E3%82%B9](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A1%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A4%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A7%E3%82%B9)
カイウス・ ヴァロール doesn’t strike me as unpleasant or easily confused with something bad. Hope some native speaker can weight in.
Ave centurion,
I think your name might sound a bit like バカヤロー but it quite a stretch.
Glory unto caesar.
First, congratulations on the move — I’m sure it seems scary and possibly upsetting for you, but it’s a rare opportunity and I hope you’ll find that Japan is, on the whole, one of the nicer places in the world to live. And the opportunity to learn (in your case) a third language fluently will be amazing. You’re off to a great start already, working so hard to learn ahead of time. (If “spaced repetition system” doesn’t mean anything to you yet, google that — it is the #1 key to rapidly learning large amounts of information, like kanji, vocab, and sample sentences that will help you internalize the grammar.)
I also don’t see what your friend might be thinking of. As u/Arzar pointed out, Pope Caius didn’t feel a need to present his name as anything other than カイウス. However if you want to make it shorter/easier for your friends to say, you could always go by カイ, which is a common Japanese name.
As for Valor, it might be a *little* tricky for Japanese to say, but trust me, it could be much worse. (My last name is Strout!) I wouldn’t worry about it.
Good luck with the move and with your studies! I am sure you are going to crush it.
There’s actually a big supermarket/home center chain here called Valor lol.
https://valor.jp/
Their katakana is バロー by the way. Easier to write if you go that way imo.
Native Japanese speaker here. I really do not see anything that might be misunderstood here (I’ve seen people who faced bigger predicaments). As someone else said maybe Valor might be interpreted as バカヤロー, but that’s a stretch and can be mitigated by just writing your name as バロー
I’m Italian, dude your name sounds so cool. I don’t see problems with Japanese, you can pick a short name, カイ or just keep カイウス, the Japanese will probably pronounce it better than English speakers. Good luck.
I don’t see how it could sound like anything bad at all. Some users are suggesting バカヤロー but I don’t think anyone would think that and those users are shooting for straws.
Unless your name is something like Gary, Ben or maybe Dave then you don’t have anything to worry about.
Your name is cool af.
I think most people love Roman or Latin names. They are the coolest for sure. Hell, England was a part of Rome for long enough and western society is built upon Greek and Roman foundations. We imitate Roman architecture in our government buildings. The majority of the English speaking world at least is familiar with and likes Latin names.
Idk the point of this other than Americans typically like Roman or Latin names. At least the cool ones do. I mean the planets are still named after the Roman gods. A good portion of English comes from Latin and most scientific words come from Greek and Latin. Still, this has no point, but you’ve got a cool ass name.
Also, congrats on the upcoming move to Japan and great job taking initiative to learn the language! If you’ve got this positive attitude and initiative I’m sure you’ll do great at anything you put your mind to!
if you don’t mind you can register your name Valor surname to Kanji form such as 武勇（ぶゆう）
Is your friend named Biggus Dickus?
There is a supermarket chain in Japan called “Valor(sounds like Barrow in Japanese)” with the same spelling, someone might be referring to that.
It’s not a funny name at all, don’t worry about it. I think Caius Valor(sounds like Kaiusu・ Baroru in Japanese) is a cool name.
for once, I see no issues with the name that will sound anything remotely bad in Japanese.
the game valorant is big here in JP and people just say ヴァロラント or ヴァロ (valo/valor) which is identical to your name.