Should I memorize names?

3 comments

1. I like to think of my anki time as precious. I only get x amount of new cards a days I want them to be useful words.

   If a name is important in a story, you’ll see it enough to eventually remember it. Repeat over and over with more names and you’ll start getting the pattern with name kanji and readings, it will be easier to remember the next name, which you probably have to look up/check furigana to be sure

2. Many names of some famous manga characters are not real. For example,

   Naruto 鳴門 (literally meaning roaring door) means the roaring sound of whirlpools in the ocean right outside of Japan. The name is also used for naming a sushi roll that looks like a whirlpool.

   Jiraiya 児雷也 was from a novel 児雷也豪傑譚, jiraiya actually has the Buddhist meaning of “thus come” and can also be written in Kanji as 自来也. In the novel, the main character (a thief) is FREE to go anywhere he wants without leaving a trace. He just appears and disappears without being noticed and hence the name “thus come”.

   There are many similar examples like Pikachu that you can dig into. Most of them have real meanings, but are not really commonly used Japanese names.

   [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%B3%B4%E9%96%80](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%B3%B4%E9%96%80)

   https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/%E9%B3%B4%E9%96%80%E6%BC%A9%E6%B8%A6

   [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%90%E9%9B%B7%E4%B9%9F%E8%B1%AA%E5%82%91%E8%AD%9A](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%90%E9%9B%B7%E4%B9%9F%E8%B1%AA%E5%82%91%E8%AD%9A)

   [https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E6%9D%A5%E4%B9%9F](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E6%9D%A5%E4%B9%9F)

3. I just note down the names when I’m reading something, most books should have the reading the first time they show up