Male Japanese Names in Hiragana and Katakana
Kira Yamato
for first names, both Hiragana and Katakana are used too.
Even so, most Japanese have Kanji first names, while some women (about
5% according to my parents) have Hiragana first names. Foreign names are
almost always in Katakana.
What I'm asking here is this: How popular are first names given in
Hiragana and Katakana for boys in Japan?
Does anyone know?
Thanks.
-kira
Martin Beutler
Here in Tokyo I have seen first names in Hiragana of men,
which are on posters of candidates for election but those
are not their real names.
According to a girl friend of mine, it would be unpopular to
give first names in Hiragana and Katakana for boys because
those are just for girls.
MfG
Martin
Zhen Lin
Probably very rare. Though there are some men who change their names to
all-Hiragana. 氷川きよし comes to mind (originally 山田清志), and
上田祐司 is generally spelt うえだゆうじ nowadays.
Factoid: before Hiragana, Katakana names were popular for girls.
Ben Bullock
"Martin Beutler" <martin....@ulmslabo.de> wrote in message
news:DJ9Qe.72$6_5...@news1.dion.ne.jp...
> Kira Yamato wrote:
>>As far as I know, all Japanese have their family names in Kanji. However,
>>for first names, both Hiragana and Katakana are used too.
>>
>>Even so, most Japanese have Kanji first names, while some women (about
>>5% according to my parents) have Hiragana first names. Foreign names are
>>almost always in Katakana.
>>
>>What I'm asking here is this: How popular are first names given in
>>Hiragana and Katakana for boys in Japan?
>>
>>Does anyone know?
>>Thanks.
>>
>>-kira
>
>
> Here in Tokyo I have seen first names in Hiragana of men,
> which are on posters of candidates for election but those
> are not their real names.
Not just first names. Our representative in Ibaraki is にわ ゆうや. But they
are the real names, just written in hiragana. I'm not sure what the kanjis
for "Niwa Yuuya" are, I think it is 丹羽 perhaps? I don't know the kanjis
for "Yuuya" at all.
> According to a girl friend of mine, it would be unpopular to
> give first names in Hiragana and Katakana for boys because
> those are just for girls.
I don't know any Japanese men with names in hiragana or katakana. I suppose
this topic of writing names in hiragana/katakana comes up rather frequently
here. One lady I know called her daughter ユカ because she was worried her
daughter would be brain-damaged due to a difficult birth. Fortunately she
was OK, but that is another possible reason which might apply to boys too.
kouji ueshiba
news:derj8l$l4o$1...@caraway.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp...
>
> Not just first names. Our representative in Ibaraki is にわ ゆうや. But
茨城六区なら、丹羽 雄哉
上 柴 公 二
Sean
> I don't know any Japanese men with names in hiragana or katakana. I suppose
> this topic of writing names in hiragana/katakana comes up rather frequently
> here. One lady I know called her daughter ユカ because she was worried her
> daughter would be brain-damaged due to a difficult birth. Fortunately she
> was OK, but that is another possible reason which might apply to boys too.
What was the connection? Making it simpler for the child to learn how to
write her name?
My wife writes her name in katakana. マドか I'm not sure why her father
decided on that; he's a bit of an eccentric.
Ok, I just asked her. She said he originally wanted to write her name in
romaji, because it would look good with UP down UP down Up down (Madoka).
Also, he's a long-time member of some romaji society. He's also a member of
some kind of kunreishiki society. He hates Hepburn, claiming it was the
system imposed by MacArthur during the occupation.
When he found out he couldn't register her name in romaji, he went for
katakana because it was invented in Japan, not imported from China. It might
sound like he's some kind of right-wing nut, but it's actually the opposite.
He claims to be an anarchist and thinks the whole emperor thing should be
scrapped. He's also an Esperantist. Enough said.
The point here is, I guess, that there's a myriad of reasons why people
choose certain ways to write their children's names. I'm sure my
father-in-law isn't the only oddball with weird enthusiasms in Japan.
Sean
was OK, but that is another possible reason which might apply to boys too.
>
> What was the connection? Making it simpler for the child to learn how to
> write her name?
>
> My wife writes her name in katakana. マドか I'm not sure why her father
> decided on that; he's a bit of an eccentric.
Hmm, カ became か somehow.
Ben Bullock
"Sean" <not...@notmyemail.com> wrote in message
news:BF379FFA.1384%not...@notmyemail.com...
> On 8/28/05 2:24 PM, "Sean" typed:
> was OK, but that is another possible reason which might apply to boys too.
>>
>> What was the connection? Making it simpler for the child to learn how to
>> write her name?
>>
>> My wife writes her name in katakana. マドか I'm not sure why her father
>> decided on that; he's a bit of an eccentric.
>
> Hmm, カ became か somehow.
I thought it was like ドラえもん or something.
hitokiri
I hear it often happens when boys are given a name in kanji that is
either too long or too hard to write.
They write it in hiragana in everyday life because it's faster and more
convenient, but they have and use the kanji when they fill out official
forms or on their business cards.
As for the few boys with only hiragana names, it seems sometimes parents
give their kids a name that's nice but too common so they write it in
just hiragana instead of the used-off kanji for it.
The only example I kind think of is Takashi, 'cause I have a friend
called Takashi with only hiragana.
Does someone have other examples ?
j...@csse.monash.edu.au
>My wife writes her name in katakana. マドカ I'm not sure why her father
>decided on that; he's a bit of an eccentric.
>Ok, I just asked her. She said he originally wanted to write her name in
>romaji, because it would look good with UP down UP down Up down (Madoka).
>Also, he's a long-time member of some romaji society. He's also a member of
>some kind of kunreishiki society. He hates Hepburn, claiming it was the
>system imposed by MacArthur during the occupation.
I've heard that before. A giggle really, as the basis of what is now
known as ヘボン式 was established by a Japanese ローマ字会 back in Meiji
times (admittedly it had some gaigin members like Chamberlain.)
--
Jim Breen http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/
Clayton School of Information Technology,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson
> > which are on posters of candidates for election but those
> > are not their real names.
>
> Not just first names. Our representative in Ibaraki is にわ ゆうや. But they
> are the real names, just written in hiragana. I'm not sure what the kanjis
> for "Niwa Yuuya" are, I think it is 丹羽 perhaps? I don't know the kanjis
> for "Yuuya" at all.
But, isn't the reason for that because when you vote you have to write
in the candidate's full name, so if there's difficult kanji (mind you,
I've even seen simple kanji spelt out), to avoid spoilt papers or
whatever they use the hiragana name. It's pretty common to see surnames
that are one easy kanji plus hiragana for the hard one.
BTW, I think I heard that they are allowing people voting for
堀江社長 to write ホリエモン too, or is he in fact adopting
ホリエモン as his nom de guerre?
A second BTW, does Japan allow spoiler candidate names? In the UK
sometimes you'd get "Literal Democrats" or "Tory Bliar"s standing just
to confuse the voters.
Ken
Sean
Well, she does like どら焼き.
Sean
>
> Ben Bullock wrote:
>> "Martin Beutler" <martin....@ulmslabo.de> wrote in message
>>> Here in Tokyo I have seen first names in Hiragana of men,
>>> which are on posters of candidates for election but those
>>> are not their real names.
>>
>> Not just first names. Our representative in Ibaraki is にわ ゆうや. But they
>> are the real names, just written in hiragana. I'm not sure what the kanjis
>> for "Niwa Yuuya" are, I think it is 丹羽 perhaps? I don't know the kanjis
>> for "Yuuya" at all.
>
> But, isn't the reason for that because when you vote you have to write
> in the candidate's full name, so if there's difficult kanji (mind you,
> I've even seen simple kanji spelt out), to avoid spoilt papers or
> whatever they use the hiragana name. It's pretty common to see surnames
> that are one easy kanji plus hiragana for the hard one.
Really? Hasn't the X been discovered in Japan yet? Amazing. They don't call
'em foreigners for nothing.
Martin Beutler
Even one of the Japanese biggest poet, Matsuo Bsho wrote his
name in hragana.
I just remember it now.
MfG
Martin