Hello! I’m writing a satire short story set in a Japanese highschool and I have a few questions.
I understand that Japanese people, even students, will often refer to friends/classmates that they are not so close to using surname+san. However, when referring to a character, I want to use their first name.
For example, suppose my chracter is talking to another classmate called Tanaka Yumi. It would be something along the line of:
“Good morning, Tanaka-san,” I said to Yumi.
Is this appropriate/natural?
Another question is about names. Could anyone recommend me some real first names (or made up names that sound passable) that have a meaning related/close to the word “protagonist” (for female and male character) or “villain” (for female character)?
I want to use names that are literal translation of the role each character is, similar to naming a cat “Neko”.
Thank you very much!
4 comments
主人公 and 悪役 are “protagonist” and “villain” but these are not people’s names. 田中太郎 is the most generic Japanese name if you are going for that.
You could go with 悪目 which means evil eyes but sounds like アクメ (orgasm) if it is a joke. There are a lot of vulgar 下ネタ like this.
In Japanese fiction, depending on the author and so on, it could work. But, usually the author/narrator is going from the main character’s POV, so they might assume their way of thinking.
Like pixelboy suggested, it would be fairly unusual for a first-person narrator to call someone by their last name publicly but by their first name in the narration without there being extenuating circumstances. It introduces a kind of dramatic irony that a Japanese reader would pick up on (and expect to be explained or borne out in other parts of the story) but chances are anybody reading your story won’t.
Native Speaker and consulted my brother who went to Japanese public school all his life:
It varies greatly with how close you are and your general personality (easy going extrovert, class clown or super serious or awkward nerd). And also if this is in a formal work place. But in your case I would let them call each other by their first names from the beginning unless they are not that close yet:
Between the same gender: most students call each other by their **First name** and adding san, chan, or kun or without anything (just Yumi). Although my brother also mentioned his best friend had a long and unusual first name so everyone just called him by his last name with nothing added. Also most people get nicknames. Kazunori might become Nori or Kazu.
For different genders:
So guys would call girls by their last name with a “san” and if they get to know them, their first name without any chan or san. If a guy calls a girl with a chan it implies dating or maybe a significant age gap. I never had a male classmate call me with a chan ..only my family and maybe like male coworker who was older than my dad.
Girls call each other chan in most situations, first or last names, doesnt matter and they of course and can go without the chan.
Sorry its kind of long. But seriously, it depends on personality and vibes.
It would be really hard to find a name with the japanese word for protagonist or villain, but something that is plausible is a protagonist with a name that is super upbeat and exudes that “protagonist energy” or “villain energy”. Villain names with the kanji for darkness(an〜暗) or night (夜 yoru) in the name would work and I often see in manga.