A popular name Japanese children are given is “Miyako”, pronounced Mee-a-koe. Believe it or not, there are meanings for each of the syllables in names Japanechildren are given. In this example, Miyako is a name Japanese girls are given that mean the parents wish her to grow up beautiful. “mi” is the Japanese meaning of “beautiful”. The Japanese parents who give this name to their children wish for their child to be beautiful. The second syllable “ya” means the month of “March”. This most likely means that the child was born in March. The last syllable is “ko” which, in Japanese means “child”. This last syllable is generally associated with baby girl names as it is represented in hiragana. Hiragana is a way the Japanese write and use language with a soft expression. Kanji is another form of written Japanese. This is the most widely used form of the Japanese written language. There is also another writing form called katakana. With all of these different ways of expressing themselves, it is any wonder that they learn their own language.

Another popular name Japanese parents give a child is “Ayumi”. Pronounced “eye-oo-mee”. This name has three syllables but only one meaning. “Ayumi” in Japanese means “walking.” This is written in hiragana because it is a passive expression. Some name Japanese children soley on the basis of whether or not the name is a Kanji name or a hiragana name. Like American children, some Japanese children want their names to be hiragana and not Kanji. Some children even like their name to have the same syllables as other children and to not be different. Just like the popular names of Ashley and Brooke in American culture, the syllable “mi” is very popular among the name Japanese parents choose because it means beauty. The name “Itoe” is a very uncommon name. There are two syllables in this name. The first, “ai” (ito) means love. It is pronounced “ee-toe”. The second, “e” (yes, in a name Japanese parents use, the single letter e is actually a syllable all by itself.) means “give”, or “blessing”. A complete meaning of the name Itoe then could mean a love blessing or a love gift.

Knowing that a name Japanese people give to their child is written in characters, the question begs answering, do the Japanese write their names from left to right like in America or do they write them differently? In Japan long ago, most kanji was written vertically, that is, from top to bottom. With modern day Japanese writings, the horizontal approach is taken and yes, it is written from left to right. Since so many cultures have culminated in America, there is some speculation that the immigrants who travel back to their homelands have taken back customs and traditional ways of doing things from the states. Whether or not this is true is not known, but it is quite possible.

Choosing a child’s name in Japanese is a very arduous process as there are literally thousands of kanji characters to choose from to name a child. Each character is pronounced differently and have different meanings. If you are ever in Japan, don’t insult someone by trying to pronounce their name, offer the respect of asking them to pronounce it for you. This lets them know that you are trying to conform to their culture as much as they’ve had to conform to ours.