As some of you (well, a handful of you ) may know, I’m pregnant with my third baby.
No, I am not seeking congratulations. What I WOULD like is name suggestions.
You see, my first two kids were planned, and we had decided on names WAY before they were born. Luckily we had one of each, so we were able to use the one boy’s name and the one girl’s name we’d thought of.
But now we are stuck. This baby wasn’t planned, and we have no idea of good names. We still have a while to find something good (baby is due November 12).
Here are the rules:
no ultra-common names, but nothing so stupid that the kid is going to have a reason to be bullied
both boy’s and girl’s names are needed
if possible, the names need to be easy to say for both Aussies and Japanese
the initial of our surname is U (so please avoid any names that start with P or F )
Well, congratulations anyway. I have a Japanese-American cousin named Alissa. That name seems to work well in both languages. My own name (Ken) is bilingual too but I wouldn’t recommend it, it’s unusually short in both languages.
You can never go wrong kissing up to the powerful. Name your child after the Emperor/Emperess.
My favorite Japanese war hero - Saburo.
My favorite Japanese plane - Zero!
Sushi - has a nice ring to it, perhaps unfortunate connotations.
My favorite Japanese Simpson character - Akira.
Ugh, don’t do that, unless you want people to think you are extreme right-wing. Besides, nobody uses the name of the emperor anyway - the previous emperror will always be known as the Showa Emperor, not Emperor Hirohito.
As for Saburo, it means “third son” so it would be a very unusual name for a second son.
Ooooh, deja vu (haven’t I seen this thread somewhere before?)
Having absolutely NO knowledge of anything Japanese (apart from their culinary delights), I was going to suggest Wayne and Kylie, but…
ninevah’s choices are waaaay cooler!
*Humble apologies to any Wayne’s or Kylie’s out there.
Having taught countless bi-cultural kids in Japan, I’ve seen what names go well in both languages.
Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:
Meg (Megu in Nihongo)
Kai
Kahn
Nozomi
Hana ( I love this one, but may be too common)
Chihiro
Jaye (for a girl)
Julian (comes out as Jureean in Nihongo)
My favorite boy’s name overall is Akira. I just like it. Unfortunately, we can’t use it for the upcoming BeanSprout. Well, I guess we could use it, but we’d all have a lifetime of explaining why a little Jewish kid from New Jersey had a Japanese name. So, I suggest it to you.
This week I’m recommending the girl’s name Majandra (pronounced as in Spanish: Ma han’ dra). Not sure what Nihongo will do to that–maybe knock out the “d” for “Mahanra”, maybe end up as “Mahandura”. According to the actress Majandra Delfino, the name comes from Hindu for “Blue Moon”.
For boys, you just can’t beat Jojo.
(What? You expect a serious post? Maybe later!)
Whatever you go with, please just don’t pick a three-syllable Japanese name. They always get butchered when English speakers say them, because for some reason everyone emphasizes the second syllable. So my friend MIwako becomes miWACK-o, and TEruko turns into tuh-ROO-ko. DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!
Not that I have any personal connection to you whatsoever, but I’m just saying…
How about Nami? I always thought that was a pretty name. I also like Chie.
I’ve never much cared for Japanese boy names. I saw a television show once where a child’s name was written “poem” (“shi”) and “dream” (“mu”) and pronounced “poemu.” Which is actually really cheesy, I guess.
Picking a Spanish or Italian name might make it easier to be rendered into Japanese.
) may know, I’m pregnant with my third baby.
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