How do you pick a Japanese name?

The Basics of Japanese Names: How They Are Chosen, Written, and Read

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Japanese names for people occupy an unusual niche in that seeing a written name doesnt mean youll know how to pronounce it. Furthermore, hearing a name doesnt mean youll know how to write it even if you are a native Japanese speaker!

How come? Lets start with a quick overview of written Japanese.

Japanese, the Written Language

Japanese uses three scripts for writing: ideographs and two syllabic alphabets (where each character represents a syllable).

Ideographic Script: Japanese Kanji

Kanji are borrowed Chinese ideographs that represent an idea, but whose pronunciation changes based on word context. Here is a (incomplete) sampling of one Kanji characters various pronunciations.
The character 生 has a basic meaning of life. It has an especially prolific set of pronunciations.

Kanji wordPronunciationExplanation先生senseiCombined with Kanji 先 (meaning: before, ahead) 生 is pronounced sei. 先生 = teacher (i.e., the one who was born before you)生namaStandalone word meaning raw as in raw meat, but when prefixed to the word for broadcast (中継 chuukei), 生中継 (nama chuukei) means live broadcast.生かすi(kasu)生 is pronounced i for the verb meaning to use (i.e., make something alive by using it) and combined with Hiragana (syllabary) characters kasu.生まれるu(mareru)生 is pronounced u for the verb meaning to be born and combined with Hiragana (syllabary) characters mareru.Phonetic Scripts: Hiragana and Katakana

Two syllabary alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana, in Japanese represent the same 46 syllables, with no meaning attached to any character. In general, Hiragana, more curvy in appearance, are used for Japanese words and Katakana is used for borrowed words from other languages.

HiraganaKatakanaPronunciationあアaきキkiこコko

See a full table of Hiragana and Katakana characters here.

Ambiguous Japanese name readings and spellings

As a result, since Kanji is used for the majority of names (certainly all family names), there is a great deal of ambiguity as to how to pronounce names aka, the readings. In fact, Japanese business cards commonly include the reading of a persons name to avoid embarrassment for the card receiver, and Japanese people are used to including their name pronunciation in Hiragana or Katakana for any form they fill out.

In the example below, the reading for the name Azuma Taro is given in Hiragana (tiny Hiragana above the Kanji).

The table below is just a small sampling of this phenomenon. In general, Japanese has many homophones where one reading can map to many Kanji combinations, as shown below for the male given names Takeshi, Koji, and Hiroshi.

Examples of Kanji given names with multiple readings

(source)

Kanji given namesPossible readings (in Hiragana and English)光希こうき Koki or みつき Mitsuki幸子ゆきこ Yukiko or さちこ Sachiko清一きよかず Kiyokazu or せいいち Seiichi裕美ひろみ Hiromi or ゆみ Yumi裕司ひろし Hiroshi or ゆうじ Yuji広志
広治
浩志
宏司ひろし Hiroshi or こうじ Koji高志
孝司たかしTakeshi or こうじ Koji健司
健志
健史たけし Takeshi or けんじ Kenji

Some parents may choose to use only Hiragana (ようこ Yoko) or a mix of Kanji and Katakana (ヨウ子 Yoko) or a mix of Kanji and Hiragana (よう子 Yoko).

Then there are pronunciations for Kanji that are ONLY used for names.

東 means east and is normally pronounced higashi or tou (as in Tokyo 東京), but as a surname it is pronounced Azuma.

Japanese nicknames

Unlike English, which has many standard nicknames (such as Liz, Beth, or Eliza for Elizabeth, or adding of an ie sound at the end (Charles > Charlie, Katherine > Kate > Katie), Japanese nicknames are much more ad hoc. They are often a shortening of sounds in the name plus 君(-kun) or ちゃん(-chan) (diminutive forms of -san, the term of respect that one uses when addressing another person). Or for two-word names, might be combining the initial sound of each word as with Brad Pitt to BuraPi.

Given name正明
Masaakiまあくん</ br>
Mā-kun哲子
Tetsukoてっちゃん
Tetchanこコ勝也
Katsuyaかっちゃん
Katchan安成
Yasunariやあちゃん
Yā-chan木村 拓哉
Kimura Takuya (Japanese celebrity)キムタク
Kimutakuブラッド・ピット
Buraddo Pitto (U.S. actor Brad Pitt)ブラピ
Burapi

Source: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name#Nicknames

Japanese approaches to naming

When parents name their child, they might start with Kanji for its pleasing meaning or with the sound of a name, like Yoko or Hiroshi. Its unsurprising that the most popular names of the year lists show both. Currently girls names which end in -ko 子 (meaning child) are less popular than in the past as you can see below.

Below are the top five most popular female and male names for 2019 and 1970.

2019 Top Five Girl Names

(Source)

By Kanji character, with Romanized reading
1. 陽葵（Himari) Kanji meaning: sun+hollycock
2. 凛（Rin) Kanji meaning: cold
3. 紬（Tsumugi）Kanji meaning: pongee (a knotted silk cloth)
4. Tied for 4th: 莉子（Riko）Kanji meaning: jasmine+child
and 芽依（Mei）Kanji meaning: bud+reliant/depend onBy reading in Hiragana and Romanized (Kanji characters for these names will vary)
1. めい Mei
2. あかり Akari
3. ひまり Himari
4. ゆい Yui
5. みお Mio1970 Top Five Girl Names

(source)

By Kanji character, with Romanized reading
1. 直　美 (Naomi) Kanji meaning: straight+beautiful
2. 智　子 (Tomoko) Kanji meaning: wisdom+child
3. 陽　子 (Yoko) Kanji meaning: sun+child
4. 裕　子 (Yuko) Kanji meaning: abundant/rich+child
5. 由美子 (Yumiko) Kanji meaning: reason+beauty+child2019 Top Five Boy Names

(source)

By Kanji character, with Romanized reading
1. 蓮（Ren）Kanji meaning: lotus flower or seed
2. 湊（Minato）Kanji meaning: gathering, pier
3. 陽翔（Haruto）Kanji meaning: sun/sunlit+flying/detailed
4. 律（Ritsu）Kanji meaning: straight, upright
5. 樹（Itsuki）Kanji meaning: treeBy reading in Hiragana and Romanized
はると (Haruto)
そうた (Sota)
みなと (Minato)
ゆうと (Yuto)
りく (Riku)1970 Top Five Boy Names

(source)

1. 健一 (Kenichi) Meaning: healthy, strong
2. 誠 (Makoto) Meaning: sincerity
3. 哲也 (Tetsuya) Meaning: philosophy, clear
4. 剛 (Tsuyoshi or Takeshi) Meaning: strong, manly
5. 博 (Hiroshi) Meaning: learned

Modern names

Traditionally, Japanese girl names often end in -ko (子), -ka, n-a, or -e, while boy names end in -rou, -o, or -hiko (with some exceptions). However, as in other cultures, names and naming trends go through cycles of popularity. In the 2000s, many parents chose a reading and then creatively matched Kanji characters to it. In the process, they sometimes entirely ignored the standard readings attached to those characters. For example 一二三 (Kanji characters for the numbers 1, 2, 3 read ichi, ni, san) might be matched to the reading do re mi. (Yes, as in the musical notes.) These types of names are called キラキラネーム (kira kira name, where kira kira means glittery/sparkly) or more pejoratively, DQNネーム (pronounced don kyoon name).

To reign in misguided parents who might choose to name their child demon or anything that might expose them to teasing, the Japanese Ministry of Justice maintains a list of permissible Kanji for use in Japanese names.

Last thoughts

Given the ambiguity of Japanese name pronunciation, they can be extremely challenging to match between the original Japanese name and its rendition in Latin characters. We will cover that topic in a future blog post.