Those who have children in Japan, how did you choose your child’s name? Was there any reason behind the name besides you like it?
For reference I am Australian and my wife is Japanese. We have been thinking about names that could be easily use in Australia if we decide to move there and our child needs to go to school. We don’t really mind if it is a fully Australian or fully Japanese name, but our child will obviously be half half. So we haven’t decided on anything yet and also don’t know if its a boy or girl.
What was your decision when it came to choosing your child’s name?
24 comments
Here’s an interesting thread on this topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/b397dg/names_that_work_in_both_japanese_and_english/
Congratulations!
Ahh… Names…
Just first and last fits well in Japan. Having a middle name (or worse, “multiple” names in between the first and last), or a hyphenated name, while possible, can be difficult in Japan.
In all cases, please use the same name on all official papers. In some cases, it’s possible to use a different name in each country, but that is a whole different level of grief for the child in future.
Ooh Hana 花 if it is a girl or Tetsuo 哲夫 for a boy!!! Flower or Iron haha…
We thought long and hard on this. We were trying to find a “middle” name, one that works both in Japanese and can be written in kanji, and yet has a not to foreign ring to it in my home country. While searching for a name like that, I realized that this is a lot easier for a girl’s name than a boy’s name.
I always thought Taiga works well, sounds cool in English.
Do the grandparents test. Send your parents a bunch of potential names, have them record themselves reading it. Then your spouse can choose which ones sound closest to Japanese.
My husband chosed it, 信音.
ä¿¡ because it’s a kanji used for first-borns in his family. He has it in his name, his father and grandfather had it too.
音 because he’s been playing in bands since he was 17, and wanted something to remind of sound/music.
I chosed the middle name i added on the french birth certificate.
r/namenerds can help too!
Chose a name that can be used in English (when living overseas) and Japanese both with kanji in Japanese.
We went with a name that can be easily pronounced in both languages and also uses one of my wife’s kanji and one of her mother’s kanji. It was a bit difficult but we did it and I’m very happy with the name!
Also, no middle name. Just way too much work.
We went with a western first name that could be pronounced perfectly with no difference in either language, written in katakana, a Japanese kanji middle name, and my last name (also katakana). We have heard about the horror stories of giving a middle name but it’s done and so far has caused no problems. I’ve also never had any problems with middle names here that I couldn’t explain my way out of quickly.
For the oldest I rearranged my wife’s name and made it a ki instead of a ko. It shortens easily to an English name.
For the middle one we had a friend’s kid who was named something similar and liked how it sounded shortened and it’s easy enough that he never had a problem.
The baby of the bunch I cheated and named her something private between my wife and me.
All 3 have Japanese first names though that shorten down easily and we’ve never called them by their full names.
We went with something that could be read the same in all 3 languages we have at home (french, English, Japanese).
Of course that narrowed down the list a lot, we decided 2 weeks before the birth but hell, 2.5 years later still happy with that name. Not like we could change it anyway…
FYI – the romaji name does NOT have to be the closest translation. Aka エリナ　can be either Elina or Erina (or whatever you want! Aylinaaah? ) on your Australian passport. The Japanese city hall doesn’t even ask for a Romaji writing.
I work with a lot of Japanese people, name is リサ but in English it’s written Risa .. not the same pronunciation.
We chose a non Japanese name, and used katakana for her Japanese passport. Spelling is different, pronunciation is the same.
We chose a super original name for the time, Kai. Worked well in both languages.
Later in Australia, we joined a Saturday Japanese school. 7 of the 8 boys there were called Kai.
Guess everyone else had the same idea.
The only must have criteria for us was a name that is easy to pronounce in Swedish and Japanese.
Our daughter has a name that is somewhat common in Sweden, but not in Japan. We leaned mostly towards a Swedish name throughout, with a few names that are common in both countries as options.
We just started a list with names we like. We added names when we thought if one, if the other person disagreed it was scratched. When we considered a name not as good for some reason it was scratched. In the end we had 2 names, and finally decided when the child was about 1 week old.
We picked a Japanese name that we liked. Of course I kept in mind any possible weird connotations in my home country, and I probably would have vetoed anything too long or hard to pronounce, but overall I don’t get why so many people seem to be hung up on a name that works “in both languages.” Japanese names usually aren’t that hard to pronounce in English anyway.
As a friendly reminder, please think carefully about names that have certain letters/phoneme combinations that many Japanese still have difficulty with.
Basically, make sure the name your child learns and uses is the name on their birth certificate, IDs and if you plan to travel a lot, in their passport.
For me and my wife the jump off point was a name that’s easy for my side of the family to say. (American here)
So no complex or really traditional Japanese names. After we BOTH made our own lists, and had multiple candidates, we turned it over to my wife.
She’s Buddhist and kanji strokes that correspond with last name strokes and kanji luck and all that, that was a factor.
Of course some of the candidates that we both like didn’t really fit all of the criteria so it became a compromise.
Something my family can pronounce without butchering it or if my kid wants to go to America doesn’t have to put up with a nickname, and something that satisfies the needs of the traditions my Japanese wife comes from.
We landed in an outstanding fucking compromise, if I say so myself.
They both have perfectly normal Japanese names (I chose my daughter’s name and my wife chose my son’s). British birth certificate has English middle names.
I think that gives them the most options. A Japanese name in the UK is fine, but an English name in Japan is a bit troublesome imo.
First kid, Japan is good, Japanese name that’s easily pronounced by many languages.
Second kid, I’m done with Japan, Western name that should be easy for Japanese to pronounce.
I well known sports person, tv/movie character, or actor/actress could be a good place to find a name.
I got my son’s name from a movie. Originally getting a name from a movie was the opposite of what I wanted but my husband and I couldn’t decide then one day the name just popped into my head and I liked it.
We chose Japanese first name and an English middle name. If we went back to the States, they could choose which name to go by. And being here in Japan, they can go by their first names obviously to help fit in better. The middle names they have also work in Japan, just as well as in the US.
I chose it…. I just wanted something that was one kanji, three syllables, gender neutral, not too many strokes, and sounded nice.