I have a couple students here with my name (Anna) and they use these kanji:
杏奈・杏菜
Much thanks to my parents for accidentally giving me a Japanese name (we’re Italian). If I marry and take on a Japanese surname, it’s going to be REALLY fun messing with people.
Step 1: Make an appointment with a totally Japanese name
Step 2: Show up, in all my gaijin-ity
Step 3: 超ショック
That happens to me often, actually 
They’re not really shocked, just confused.
Next thing, they usually look at my face carefully and ask if I’m half 
Interestingly, if things go the other way around (they first see me, then hear my name), they just can’t parse it, even though it’s pretty common. They keep making a weird mix between my first name and family name (usually by chunking the first syllable of my first name at the end of my family name). Once I explain the kanji, we are back to confusion and asking if I’m half.
(If I just give my family name, people don’t ask anything, probably assuming marriage? Only once, someone told me “oh, did you know this is also a Japanese name?” :p)
My name would be Kana, Megumi, Mana, Myou, or Aki, depending on which of my names I use.
I actually think Aki showed up under multiple names I used. The kanji would be 光 or 愛, I guess.
If I wanted to use ateji, I have no idea. But I could also just use katakana, since the common name I use shows up on jisho a few down in katakana.
I wouldn’t quite call that child a “Western child” then. My little girl is a ハーフand I call her a “Mixed child” bc she is half Japanese、half Australian. Her daddy chose her kanji and SO MUCH thought goes into that. Choosing a kanji for a child is more than just finding the spelling for their name、it’s almost like blessing them with a life path. The kanji chosen will create their fortune、so to speak. It must have a good meaning and match with the surname also. My partner rejected many spellings of my daughter’s kanji name on the basis of “that’s a bad omen” or “the surname and the first name do not fit” or “I don’t want her to become those personality traits”… he finally found one that he was happy with、but the process took months! (I too wanted a name that could be said properly in both languages、which in itself was a challenge.)
Knowing all this、I wouldn’t try to put my own name into kanji. Put simply 、I’m not Japanese. My name is a borrowed word and I like to honour the culture and history ingrained in same.
Mine works for my middle name… and sounds cute! ~~>
(A literal translation of my middle name, which is a literal word already in English… + “san”. XD)
People with names like “Faith” and “Hope” have an easy time of it. Although someone being named 希望 might sound weird… How does something like 岩君 sound, for a guy named “Peter” (which means rock… so boulder instead?)… I do agree with you that it wouldn’t work for everything. Pretty sure my first name would turn out really weird if I did that… so I stick to クリス for that, but choose 曲 because it’s cuter… ^^;
I guess it’s a matter of opinion, but きょく isn’t a typical name in Japanese. Which is what I was referring to, in that it would be confusing to a Japanese person to tell them that is your name.
As opposed to just saying “this is what my name means.”
I mean, I agree, I haven’t heard it before, but it sounds cute. Hmm… Mind asking your girlfriend what she thinks of that as a name?
I do wonder if it would be accepted… I mean, if some people are naming their kids with all these キラキラ names like Pikachu (forget what kanji they used for that… probably something like lightning?)…? This can’t be worse than that… right?
Yeah, she’s nearby. She said it doesn’t really sound like a name. So, I think it would require some explanation to go along with it, if you introduced yourself to someone as that. That’s really all I meant. Stranger names exist, and people survive, but it might come with some misunderstandings at first.
well. It might not make any sense in japanese, but it does in chinese.
For example, according to Wikipedia, my name in chinese is 伊俄, but イーオー in japanese.
Ah, thanks.
As for my last name, it’s probably untranslateable (especially because I don’t know Polish… but one person once said something like “it means royalty” or “you’re like royalty”)… Best katakana I’ve come up with to pronounce it is ラスカオスキ. It’s throws people off in English and I’m always either telling them how to (mis?)pronounce it, or telling them how to spell it. I’m not Polish enough to know the correct way, so I just say it like my Dad does. *shrugs*
To be fair “going head to head” does mean to fight in English. The dangers of false friends.
Never ask a French person if their jam has préservatifs in
never thought of that one.
Yes, it’s the same in English. It just means a private meeting between two people.
Here’s a headline from the Daily Mail two days ago: ‘Sympathetic’ Queen bids Theresa May - her 13th PM - goodbye with poignant tete-a-tete at Buckingham Palace. It is reported that the Queen is sad to see PM May step down, I’m sure there was no conflict at all.
And take this headline from Monaco last week: Prince Albert And Barack Obama Dine Together “Tete A Tete” At The Grill In Monte Carlo - I don’t think the Prince of Monaco and Barack Obama were having any kind of altercation!
Serves me right for trying to fancy up my talking when I should have just said “my hosts and I clashed because their entire business model was based off volunteer labour and they only gave us 500 yen a day for food when we essentially lived in a food desert”
I’d love to hear more! Did you pay to stay? Was it a private house? How come they gave you any money at all? And were you working???!! It all sounds very odd!
It’ll all be revealed in my next blog post, which is 3 months behind what I’m actually doing now and should be published soon (there’s a thread knocking around called Rumade’s Big Aventure)
Great! I’ll look out for it! Thank you!
Say, is a name really all that important?
I mean, it’s not like I’m jealous or anything…
Sorry, it was not my intention to point at mistakes or whatever. Please keep on fancying up!
It’s just that, since English is not my native language (but French is, as you maybe guessed), I gueninely asked to improve my English… Often enough, foreign words (i.e. English or German words) borrowed from French do not mean exactly the same anymore, or focus on more particular meanings and it can be tricky for me.