So I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, but couldn’t find any exact answers online. I know that like with many Asian cultures, Japanese names have literal meanings. And and many Kanji have the same sound yet different “spelling” and meanings. Besides that, I’m more interested in how literal names can get. I’ve specifically been thinking about the name Ichigo (no reason in particular) which I’m sure most know means strawberry. I know most names tend to be combinations of meanings, but Ichigo and other examples are literal singe words. So in this instance if you were referring to someone with their given name, would you literally be calling your friend “Strawberry”? I can see equivalents in English such as the name “Rose”, but in modern English this is relatively rare, and in Japanese it seems to be like this with every name.
Basically what I’m asking is, is their a separation between ACTUAL words used in conversation, and words used for names? Or is this just a societal difference where many western name meanings have been forgotten my most so there is no exact equivalence? I just find it weird to be referring to close friends as everyday objects or concepts that can be brought up in conversation at any time.
I hope this makes sense.
5 comments
I know what you’re getting at, and I think Japanese does it more than English, but we still have our fair share of names that are the same as bound, especially women’s names:
Rose, June, Joy, Hope, April, Taylor (M or F), Dakota, “Bill” (I guess).
A lot of names originally had concrete and clear language, but I guess the lack of an ideographic writing system allowed them to deviate more often from their original meanings.
It’s more like if it’s a homophone. Because the characters that you use to write the name Ichigo are not the same as how you write the word for strawberry. So basically you’re calling them a name that sounds the same but is spelled differently.
As any language, USAGE dictates what’s “normal”. You don’t need to overthink this. It’s only strange to you because it’s not normal when processing it *in terms of English*. What you describe is no weirder than to see something like “Carpenter” as a last name in English.
Usage dictates what’s normal, so words used as names feel namey.
My favourite name example is くるみ。Walnut. Totally normal Japanese name.
Names often have a different pitch accent, we can use this as evidence there is a separation
Just treat them as completely separate words. Even if the kanji is the same, at best you could say the name is derived from that word.
花 is normally haná, but as a name, it becomes Hána
桜 is normally sakura (unaccented), but it becomes Sákura
haná and Hána are not the same word, sakura and Sákura are not the same word
I decided to look up some popular boys names in the US and see if anything would come off as similarly “odd” as Ichigo. I found these, which most people wouldn’t consider weird, but could definitely be seen as strange from an English learner’s perspective
Hunter
Jack
Mike
Matt
Miles
Angel
Brooks
River
Legend
Atlas
King
Phoenix
Crew
Kobe
Sage
Frank
Baker
Tripp
Chip
Trey
Ty
Ocean
Bear
These are just some of the ones that popped out. It’s not a Japanese thing. It’s an everybody thing, it seems.