# Japanese names, looking for a specific 'type'. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 16, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138 "2010-02-16T00:33:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/1 "2010-02-16T00:33:21Z")
(My apologies if this doesn’t belong in IMHO, but I wasn’t sure about where else it might go). So, for a little literary work, I’ve written myself into a corner. I have a female japanese character who is ashamed of her name. She claims it’s like being called Myrtle or Gertrude in the United States… Something extremely outdated and unflattering-sounding. Can anyone give me a hand as to what a name of that ‘type’ would be in Japan? ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/2 "2010-02-16T15:15:28Z")
Japanese women in their 30s-50s very, very commonly have a name ending with -ko (which means “child.”) Etsuko, Yukiko, Yoko, Noriko, Chikako, Yumiko, etc. I taught a conversation class, all women in their 40s-50s and every last one had a name ending with “ko.” On the other hand, almost none of my high school students had “-ko” names. There are a few -ko names that are still used for younger women (like Aiko who is a well known singer) but generally speaking, those names are pretty old fashioned. I’m not sure if you can compare it to Bertha, but that’s something to go on, at least! ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/3 "2010-02-16T15:31:50Z")
ウメ (ume) カメ (kame) トラ (tora) These can all be used for women, but if you heard them today you’d know for sure these women must be grandmothers/great grandmothers. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/4 "2010-02-16T19:47:41Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > ウメ (ume) > カメ (kame) > トラ (tora) > > These can all be used for women, but if you heard them today you’d know for sure these women must be grandmothers/great grandmothers. **Isamu** would Miyuki work? I’ve heard it used to be considered a male name but has sort of switched gender to female and is kind of outdated. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/5 "2010-02-18T01:29:58Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > **Isamu** would Miyuki work? I’ve heard it used to be considered a male name but has sort of switched gender to female and is kind of outdated. I don’t know about the historical usage of Miyuki, but even still I don’t think it’s outdated enough for the OP’s purposes. There are a few famous people from my generation (40s) and younger that have that name. In any case, there’s an easy way to check, just do a google image search for the name and see what comes up. Miyuki or 美由紀. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/6 "2010-02-18T14:53:03Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > ウメ (ume) > カメ (kame) > トラ (tora) > > These can all be used for women, but if you heard them today you’d know for sure these women must be grandmothers/great grandmothers. For an interesting example in anime, in the high-school romance “Kimi ni Todoke”, there’s a conniving little bitch of a character named Kurumizawa Ume who freaks out when anybody calls her Ume because it’s such a little old lady’s name. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/7 "2010-02-18T18:26:11Z")
When I was in Japan I was an acquaintance of a family whose little daughter was Momoko-chan. I fell in love with her name, since momo=peach, so momoko=peach-child. I thought it was too cute!!! ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japanese-names-looking-for-a-specific-type/529138/8 "2010-02-18T18:35:37Z")
Momoko is a fairly common name, especially for fictional characters because of the peach connection – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momoko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momoko) – but I don’t think it’s particularly old-fashioned.