It’s All In a Name – Japanese Names

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In Japan, first names are written in kanji or Chinese characters, though some names are written in hiragana or katakana characters, meaning that there are thousands of possible names. Hiragana are mainly used for girl’s names because of its soft impression.

Since there are thousands of kanji to choose from, even the same name usually can be written in many different kanji combinations. For example, Keiko is a common female name, but there are more than 70 variations that exist to write the name Keiko in kanji. Depending on which characters are used, the meanings of the name differ.

In the past, when Japanese parents had large families, boys in particular were sometimes given names indicating the order in which they were born, for example Ichiro ‘first son’ and Jiro ‘second son’. However, most Japanese families now have only one or two children and parents like to choose distinctive names.

Japanese first names commonly consist of two kanji. The meanings of those kanji are often positive characteristics such as intelligence, beauty, love or light, names for flowers, the four seasons, and other natural phenomena. Boys’ names usually refer to traditionally male characteristics like power and courage. Girls’ names express virtues thought to be feminine, such as purity and beauty.

The gender of a person can often be guessed by the ending of his/her first name. First names ending with ‘-ro’, ‘-shi’, ‘-ya’, or ‘-o’ are typically male first names, while names ending in ‘-ko’, ‘-mi’, ‘-e’ and ‘-yo’ are typically female first names. For example, the ending ‘ko’, meaning ‘child’, can be found in Akiko, Fumiko, Keiko and Yoshiko. Indeed, in the past, most girls’ names ended in ‘-ko’, but this tradition is now fading.

Both genders often have names with a character from the name of a grandparent or the child’s father in order to honour the elder relative. Both genders often have names that refer to trees or parts of them because the tree is seen as a symbol of longevity, strength and success – examples include the boys’ names Kazuki (‘best tree’) and Naoki (‘upright tree’) and the girls’ names Natsuki (‘summer tree’) and Sugi (‘cedar tree’).

For some traditional Japanese, one’s name has a special importance. ‘Seimei handan’ or name diagnosis is a type of fortune telling concerning names. Its theories centre around the number of strokes that are required to write the characters of a name (there is a defined number of strokes for every Japanese character). Depending on the total number of strokes and the sums of strokes for different parts of a name in relation to each other, a name is considered more or less auspicious. Some people consult ‘seimei handan’ when selecting their child’s name.

Sometimes the combination of family name and first name is carefully considered because of the meaning of the family name. For instamce, I have a good Japanese friend whose family name is Ishibashi, which means ‘stone+bridge’, and his parents deliberately gave him the first name Michihiro, which means ‘passage+big’.

Like the Chinese, the Japanese do not use middle names.

Until the Meiji restoration of the 19th century, most Japanese people did not have family names which were in fact forbidden. When they were allowed to have family names, they tended to choose names related to nature, geographical features, or locations – for example, mountain (yama), tree (ki), rice field (ta), island (shima), village (mura), bridge (hashi), between (naka), below (shita). Most Japanese family names consist of two kanji (Chinese) characters combining two features or characteristics.

Today there are over 300,000 family names in Japan, although about 7,000 names cover around 95% of the population. Some of the most common Japanese family names are Sato, Suzuki, Takahashi, Tanaka and Watanabe.

Like the Chinese, the Japanese quote the family name before the given name. The Japanese commonly address each other by last name. Only close friends and children are usually addressed by first name. In addition, people rarely address each other just by name, but usually attach an appropriate title to the name. There is a large number of such titles, depending on the gender and social position of the person one is addressing, but the most common title is the suffix ‘-san’.

Therefore, when talking about my Japanese friend, I should use the term Ishibashi-san. A particularly common further instance of the use of this title is the Japanese manner of combining being friendly with being respectful by putting the suffix ‘-san’ at the end of a friend’s first name – for instance, to my good Japanese friend Michihiro-san, I am always Roger-san.

Links:
Formation of Japanese names click here
Japanese first names click here and click here