Question about missing Japanese characters

Japanese Language
21

I have a similar problem in that even katakanaised my name seems to be unpronounceable by Japanese native speakers :frowning:

クレア sounds nothing like my name and appears to be a struggle anyway

I need to get myself a nickname that works

22

Just out of curiosity, what is your name? Crea?

23

Oh, I assumed it was Clare / Claire.

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24

That’s probably a much better guess…

25

Not necessarily correct though :wink:

26

Got it in one.

The L R combo seems difficult for native speakers. If I ever went for an extended time Id prefer to use something else for everyones sake

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27

We had someone called ‘Cleo’ in our class, and nobody understood that that was her name for several months, so I’m tuned in to the R/L issue :wink:

Mine just manages to compact all the problematic sounds for Japanese into one neat package.

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28

Luckily for me, I don’t normally go by my given name, and the nickname I’ve used for years works very well.
ゼスティー

Now in America, getting people to call me that is like pulling teeth…

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29

My first name is quite easy: ドン.

This does mean that I get called “Dong” during telcons which I’m fine with but some people find hilarious for some reason…

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30

If I recall one of the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar books has a section about common ways to Katakanize certain sounds. Such as ニュ versus ヌ etc

31

My name’s pretty common worldwide and it’s actually a Japanese name as well so I’ve seen it in every form like まり, マリ and even various kanjis I can’t remember right now. But most of the time I’ve seen Japanese people with this name use a normal kanji surname and the hiragana spelling of まり. It’s pretty interesting.

// When I was younger I would’ve totally used 愛莉. But I think most people would read it as あいり. :smiley: 茉莉 is really pretty too. 真理 is probably the most common one, though.

32

Sure it can! Rad! Dish!!

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33

I’m feeling very thankful that my name is ハナ (or, alternatively, 花) right now.

34

Is there any “rule” how to pick Kanji for a name?

Or do Japanese people just use the Kanji they like?

35

Fundamentally yes, Kanji are picked because they like it, or even no Kanji.

However, generally Kanji are picked for other related reasons, such as familial Kanji (even in first names), or certain types of things are common such as 子 being common in girls names and 一 in guys. 一二三 is one of my favorite names.

And certain Kanji aren’t used for names, or are rarely used.

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36

Same. :cry:

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37

Same. :sleepy:

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38

How about クレーア? It sounds more like Claire to me, and it’s easier to pronounce. :grin:

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39

Ah, thanks a lot.

I just looked up 一二三 on jisho and there are more than ten different names listed. :sweat_smile:

So if you just see a name written in Kanji you can basically only guess what it means if you have never seen it before, because the reading can be pretty much anything right?

40

Careful how you pronounce it though. People might think your name is 鼻!

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