Hi all,
I’ve been looking into picking a name for my future son, and I’ve really taken to the name Ayato (I’m half-Japanese if anyone curious). My son will be raised in an English speaking country, so I figured the name was a good compromise between connecting to my culture whilst still being (relatively) easy to pronounce for English speakers.
That aside, I was wondering if it was worth picking Kanji for his name even though he’ll be raised in an English speaking country? I thought it’d be a nice thing to do as he’ll be exposed to Japanese throughout his life, but of course he’ll be mainly speaking English.
If so, does anyone have any kanji in particular they like?
Thank you all so much for any help!
2 comments
You can’t pick your favourite kanji and use them in a name. If you want it to make sense, then you need to use kanji that can be read as “Ayato” using official readings.
[Here’s](https://pon-navi.net/nazuke/name/reading/m/%E3%81%82%E3%82%84%E3%81%A8) a website I found where you can see 284 different ways to write “Ayato” with kanji. All of them have the same reading, Ayato, but the meanings of the kanji differ.
So there’s an “Ayato” where the kanji mean “logic, person”. And another one where the kanji mean “small tiger, to soar” and another one, where the kanji mean “beautiful, person”. I won’t list all 284 variations, but you know what I mean.
So, if you want kanji in your son’s name choose one from the list. However, finding out the meaning of each individual kanji in that list is gonna be a bit time consuming, so good luck.
For what it’s worth, I understand the desire to have a connection with the culture, but if you’re not living in Japan I question whether it’s necessary at all. How often would you even write it down in Japanese?
Also, I’m not sure to what degree it’s formalized but it’s my understanding that a lot of Nisei, when they DO go to Japan, wind up having their name written in katakana as if it’s a foreign name anyways.