Wondering if there's a good trick for name kanji

[Enecororo]

Just imagine that it might be difficult, especially when they’re only used for names or have pronunciations that are only used for names

[Belthazar]

There’s one good trick that works every time: ask them how their name is pronounced.

[ZaraHunter]

What I’ve done for a few names is find anime/drama characters with that name and learned a bit about them (or I’d watched the show) and it’s given me more to associate with the names that just sounds. Maybe making up a character with a certain name could work too!
(sometimes name kanji pronounciations will just be rlly obscure tho)

[Enecororo]

I get what you’re saying, but I meant in the sense of coming across it in writing without furigana or something

[Korastra]

I’m no expert in this, but I’ve noticed that names tend to use the opposite readings of what you’d expect.

For instance, in 田中 you’d expect it to use the on’yomi (tachū) since there’s only kanji. However, it’s read as Tanaka which are both of the kun’yomi readings.

Again, I’m no expert, but that’s what I’ve observed. Anyone who wants to correct me feel free.

[morteASD]

I don’t think you need to stress about it too much. Even Japanese people need to ask each other all the time how their name is read, because usually they don’t have furigana in their 名刺 and the name has several possibilities and/or obscure kanjis. Nowadays you start to see English on the flipside, though.

[Belthazar]

@cgsmith2

For instance, in 田中 you’d expect it to use the on’yomi (tachū) since there’s only kanji.

The on’yomi for 田 is でん. But that quibble aside, names that don’t use nanori tend to use use kun’yomi. They’re Japanese names, not Chinese.

Here’s a list of the top 100 surnames in Japan (from Wikipedia), alongside which I’ve listed the reading type for each name. I kinda did this at a glance, so while I’m fairly sure it’s accurate, I may have confused a kun reading with a nanori here and there.

Rank	Name	Romanization	Reading type
1	佐藤	Satō	On
2	鈴木	Suzuki	Kun
3	高橋	Takahashi	Kun
4	田中	Tanaka	Kun
5	渡辺	Watanabe	Kun+Nanori
6	伊藤	Itō	On
7	中村	Nakamura	Kun
8	小林	Kobayashi	Kun
9	山本	Yamamoto	Kun
10	加藤	Katō	On
11	吉田	Yoshida	Kun
12	山田	Yamada	Kun
13	佐々木	Sasaki	On+Kun
14	山口	Yamaguchi	Kun
15	松本	Matsumoto	Kun
16	井上	Inoue	Kun
17	木村	Kimura	Kun
18	清水	Shimizu	Nanori+Kun
19	林	Hayashi	Kun
20	斉藤	Saitō	On
21	斎藤	Saitō	On
22	山崎	Yamazaki	Kun
23	中島	Nakajima	Kun
24	森	Mori	Kun
25	阿部	Abe	On+Kun
26	池田	Ikeda	Kun
27	橋本	Hashimoto	Kun
28	石川	Ishikawa	Kun
29	山下	Yamashita	Kun
30	小川	Ogawa	Kun
31	石井	Ishii	Kun
32	長谷川	Hasegawa	Nanori+Nanori+Kun
33	後藤	Gotō	On
34	岡田	Okada	Kun
35	近藤	Kondō	On
36	前田	Maeda	Kun
37	藤田	Fujita	Kun
38	遠藤	Endō	On
39	青木	Aoki	Kun
40	坂本	Sakamoto	Kun
41	村上	Murakami	Kun
42	太田	Ōta	Nanori+Kun
43	金子	Kaneko	Kun
44	藤井	Fujii	Kun
45	福田	Fukuda	Kun
46	西村	Nishimura	Kun
47	三浦	Miura	Kun
48	竹内	Takeuchi	Kun
49	中川	Nakagawa	Kun
50	岡本	Okamoto	Kun
51	松田	Matsuda	Kun
52	原田	Harada	Kun
53	中野	Nakano	Kun
54	小野	Ono	Kun
55	田村	Tamura	Kun
56	藤原	Fujiwara	Kun
57	中山	Nakayama	Kun
58	石田	Ishida	Kun
59	小島	Kojima	Kun
60	和田	Wada	Kun
61	森田	Morita	Kun
62	内田	Uchida	Kun
63	柴田	Shibata	Kun
64	酒井	Sakai	Kun
65	原	Hara	Kun
66	高木	Takagi	Kun
67	横山	Yokoyama	Kun
68	安藤	Andō	On
69	宮崎	Miyazaki	Kun
70	上田	Ueda	Kun
71	島田	Shimada	Kun
72	工藤	Kudō	On
73	大野	Ōno	Kun
74	宮本	Miyamoto	Kun
75	杉山	Sugiyama	Kun
76	今井	Imai	Kun
77	丸山	Maruyama	Kun
78	増田	Masuda	Kun
79	高田	Takada	Kun
80	村田	Murata	Kun
81	平野	Hirano	Kun
82	大塚	Ōtsuka	Kun
83	菅原	Sugawara	Kun
84	武田	Takeda	Kun
85	新井	Arai	Kun
86	小山	Koyama	Kun
87	野口	Noguchi	Kun
88	桜井	Sakurai	Kun
89	千葉	Chiba	Kun
90	岩崎	Iwasaki	Kun
91	佐野	Sano	On+Kun
92	谷口	Taniguchi	Kun
93	上野	Ueno	Kun
94	松井	Matsui	Kun
95	河野	Kōno	Nanori+Kun*
96	市川	Ichikawa	Kun
97	渡部	Watanabe	Nanori+Kun**
98	野村	Nomura	Kun
99	菊地	Kikuchi	Kun
100	木下	Kinoshita	Kun

*Can also be read as Kawano, which is pure Kun
**Can also be read as Watabe, which is pure Kun

[Korastra]

@Belthazar

The on’yomi for 田 is でん

Ah, whoops

I even looked up the on’yomi on both of them before and still made that mistake. Thanks for the correction. Nice to know I’m not entirely crazy on the kun’yomi thing though.