Changing random names into Japanese name?

[Sorry, double post]

 

so meaning what?

 

I think it has more to do with people using japanese names for non japanese. While I am sure it happens but it's a petpeeve amongst readers that was brought about the popularity of anime in the west.

It's also a question on one of them Mary Sue Litmus Test.

 

if you watch anime they will have many Caucasian characters in ambiguous settings who have Japanese names. I've always been curious about that and aske a Japanese filmmaker about it and got some strange answers, but that's how it is. I can see how the enjoyment of anime would influence a western writer.

 

I tried that site and wrote John in there to test it.

It gave me two Kanji´s and it said that basically John in Japanese is "Daughter to Sew" and then I wrote another name "Sarah" and it gave me "Avert Inclusive"

Total nonsense

 

I've always been a huge fan as well.

You should pick up a book about their folk lore and abou Zen Philosophy. Great stuff.

They have a very creative culture, much like the US.

 

I should have been more cautious, I guess. I just tried it out on a few names I already knew the translation for and they were accurate. Sorry about that.

 

Well, the point is that there's not really a good phonetic translation for western names into Japanese. Sure, you can approximate the sounds, but that doesn't at all preserve the meaning. Translating "Greg" into... "spirit encounter" might be kinda neat, but my name isn't "spirit encounter", it's "guardian" or "protector". Just like any word, you need to translate on meaning, not on phonetics.

If you're interested in finding a more accurate Japanese translation for a western name, feel free to PM me, it'se a pretty interesting process, and, believe it or not, I find it kind of fun

 

Re:

Yes, it has ALOT of japanese influence to it,almost everything is influenced by something japanese....

 

I see where you're coming from. Japanese names sound beautiful and have great meaning behind them. I enjoy Japanese names as well, take a look at my user name...Aimi Aiko. (it is my character used for an RPG though). IMO, you don't necessarily have to have a Japanese based story because of the names. You can have an american character whose parents enjoy the Japanese culture, therefore, they named him/her a Japanese name.

My character Aimi Aiko is a japanese american. Her father is american and her mother is japanese. You could have a mixed family.

So the usage of foreign names aren't necessary bad.

 

Re:

yes exactly....

 

What if I had some american names and some japanese names, but it doesnt take place in japan?

 

Another thing about a Japanese name is that depending on how it is written, there can be two different ways of pronouncing it, along with two different meanings.

The Japanese essentially have two different different alphabets: hiragana and katakana.

Sometimes the Japanese use this to fit puns into a name.

And sometimes translation into romanji isn't always accurate.

 

Ok...ugh....*facepalm* this **** is hard to understand....

 

*rips out hair* (not really)

 

Could you try to explain it alittle simplier?

 

Just give us a character and what you want the name to mean (or a western name that you want an equivalent meaning for), and we can come up with a practical example instead of trying to teach you complex language theory from just a few forum posts.

 

Eurlo.....(random name, is my one of my main characters...) Meaning: love,evil,courage

 

There is nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

 

I'd say that's fine so long as most of the people with the Japanese names are Japanese or were born in Japan (or something like that). If not, you're going to have to give a really, really, really good reason for such.

 

I'm assuming this is a female name, since it's also your screenname?

For a female, that's a rather difficult combination, especially since Japanese first names generally only get two characters to work with, but I was able to come up with this:

勇子 -- The first character means "courage", and, in this context, can be pronounced as "isa" or "yuu". The second character means "child" (a very common second element of female names), almost always pronounced "ko".

That gives the meaning of "courageous child", and it would be pronounced either Isako or Yuuko (Yūko, you could spell it simply "Yuko").

This is a great example of a name with two distinct, but completely equivalent pronounciations. Kanji have a number of different pronounciations, some coming from native Japanese, some coming from China with the characters, and many of them are only used in names. So, just like I have an example of several different ways to write "Kazumori", the name I gave here has two completely valid pronounciations. This sometimes gets interesting, because, just by seeing a name written in kanji, it's often impossible to tell exactly how to pronounce it, so on Japanese forms (they love their paperwork), people are also asked to write their names out phonetically so that the names can be pronounced.

 

its male.....

 

And I have a tight bond with him.....(that probably sounds gross,wierd )

 

Ok, well that does make a difference.

勇毅 is composed of the following characters: 勇 means courage, and, in this context, can be pronounced "yuu" (yū); 毅 means strength, and can be pronounced "ki".

Together, the name means "strong courage" or "corageous strength", and is pronounced "Yuuki" (Yūki), and can be written as "Yuki" for aesthetics.

 

If it's something you plan to publish one day then this would be bizarre to read. A reader won't know you on a personal level so everything in the story should feel relevant even once you take yourself out the picture. However, if it's something you're writing purely for yourself then feel free to do what you want: it's your story and you shouldn't need to ask other writers for permission for what you want to do.

If it was an American person having been born in Japan then it would make sense. Eg: my friend is Malaysian by ethnicity but he was born in Britain so his parents gave him an English name. But in other cases parents give their children names from their native countries. Eg: the pop singer, Crystal Kay, was born and raised in Yokohama, Japan to an American father and a Korean mother so this means she was given a name more commonly associated with her father's origins.