-I'm in a bit of a jam here.One of the main characters in my book goes by the name 'Mitsuki',but people call him either Mike or Michael.I knew african people and asian (usualy east asian) people who would produce an easy to pronounce 'white name'.so as not to confuse non-asian people.Should I refer to him as 'Mitsuki' ,when I write about him ,or Mike .
Call him Mitsuki. It's very easy to pronounce. Given our obsession with phenomenon like naruto and bleach, I'm pretty sure people would be more than comfortale reading about a guy called Mitsuki. If you do want to give him a westernized nickname though, let it be either Mike or Michael; Not both. 3 names for one character seems really confusing and unecessary
I would just use Mitsuki, but if your MC is given a nickname by other people, then let them call him that, but you can still call him Mitsuki as a narrator. Like: See? Other characters can call him that, but you should always refer to him as Mitsuki. ~ J. J.
Judging from the spelling of Mitsuki, that is a Japanese name (did you make it up or is it real?) - in which case, no, he would not change his name voluntarily to English. I've never met a Japanese person with an English name. Koreans neither (though some have Chinese names). It's the Chinese who have English names (Hong Kong, China and Malaysia). I've come across some Vietnamese with both English names and Vietnamese names - it's flexible with both the Vietnamese and the Chinese I think. But for the Japanese, definitely not. And they're far too patriotic to do so in any case I think. Mitsuki is easy to pronounce anyway, so I wouldn't worry. My only thing is that it sounds an awful lot like Mizuki to me but then again I guess the meaning of the name matters more. I was quite surprised to find out that the Japanese naming system is similar to the Chinese, in that there are no "set" names you must choose from but you can make up your own according to the meanings you want to have in the name (though with both Chinese and Japanese names, there are certainly common combinations that become typical names)
Depends on your setting, era and character history. I know asians that migrated to the US in the 80's and 90's and all of their family use their "western" names. More recent arrivals use their Asian names. So it depends on how your character sees themselves.
I would use Mitsuki. Besides, if you call him "Mike" for the entire story, what's the point of him being named "Mitsuki"? Might as well just officially change it to "Mike" !
