I recently started learning japanese, and It got me curious about my name. All my great-grandparents on my father’s side immigrated to Brazil from Japan, and my family up until last generation named kids with a Brazilian name, then a japanese name, and then our surname, even though no one speaks japanese anymore and we are pretty much 100% Brazilian. The only japanese we really speak is that everyone calls my grandma おばあちゃん, my grandpa おじいちゃん, and my father and his younger siblings call my aunt ねえちゃん. My grandparents barely remember how to speak japanese, as they didn’t learn a lot of It, and none of them know the kanji for the names.
My name, without the Brazilian part, would be Yudi Honda, which in hiragana I guess could be ほんだゆぢ. From what I gathered, my surname has both 本田 and 本多 as common kanji, but Yudi seems to be a name that was popularized in Brazil among immigrants.
My questions are:
1- Does anyone have insight on probable kanji for my name given the family immigration context?
2- If I ever talk to a Japanese person through text, should I write my name as Honda Yudi? ほんだゆぢ? ホンダユヂ? ほんだゆじ since apparently ぢ is kind of rare? Could I just pick some kanji? I don’t see a reason too at first, but should I include my Brazilian name in katakana as well?
Thanks in advance!
Ps.: the reason I think there were kanji and we just forgot them is that Yudi is the name of my grandfather, who was named by Japanese people, although I’m aware names can be in whatever script. And Honda obviously is a family name.
5 comments
Names of non-Japanese citizens, even if they are of Japanese origin, are usually in katakana
‘Yudi’ *might* come from the Japanese name ‘Yuuji’ which has a lot of different possible spellings. ‘Di’ in Brazillian Portuguese is pronounced like how we say ‘jee’ in English right? If not ユディ matches the pronunciation better
祐二 is the first spelling my IME gives me for Yuuji
I found Yudi Tamashiro and Japanese articles about him spell it as ユウジ so for your name it would be ユウジ・ホンダ
ほんだ ゆうじ has a various Kanji combinations.
誉田 is another candidate for family name other than 本田 and 本多
ゆうじ has a thousand of them.
ゆう could be 勇、祐、裕、雄、悠 for popular Kanji on names.
じ could be 二、司、次、士、治 and so on. About 200 characters each. Nearly 40 thousands combination.
The famous football player Ruy Ramos became a natural citizen, his wife chose his Kanji ラモス瑠偉. He has a middle and long family name, but he didn’t bring it into Japanese one.
The rules for giving you an official Japanese name.
1. Use either Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana, no Latin alphabets.
2. If a person has a spouse, the family name must be the same.
3. No duplicated name in a family.
4. You may not change after publishing.
I think two things are not happy with these rules. One is alphabet letters are prohibited. How come the international universal ones aren’t allowed? Another is the western culture gives name after parents. John Lurk’s son is often John Lurk the second.
OP, transliteration unfortunately makes it hard to fully grasp how the family name was originally written, especially for Japanese where there are multiple readings for kanji. Is there any chance there are leftover documents or letters from your great-grandparents or grandparents that could perhaps confirm the kanji? Even a letter from a relative in Japan could perhaps bring some insight, although I realize that far back it’ll be difficult or unlikely to find.
I know of one site you could perhaps try to find further information, although it depends on how much you know. The Museu Histórico de Imigração Japonesa No Brasil has [a section where you can search through the archives of those who arrived by boat.](https://imigrantes.ubik.com.br) The registry includes the native writing of the names.
Just a note, which might shed some light on your grandfather’s name should you be able to find information on your great-grandfather’s name: it was not unusual for Japanese to include one of the father’s kanji in their son’s name even until relatively recently. I’ve a distant relative who married a Japanese man and both their sons, who are in their 40s, share 1 kanji with their father’s name, although the reading varies. It’s possible your great-grandparents followed this tradition and one of your great-grandfather’s kanji is included in your grandfathers name! Far-fetched, but throwing that out there, as it might even help you discover the kanji for your own name.
I’ve never seen Honda written any way besides 本田, though that’s ofc not a guarantee. Yudi isn’t a native jpn name, it’d be written ユディ