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kati, the happy little feller :] (rainbowling) wrote,
@ 2009-02-08 23:36:00

Entry tags:

! resources, game: awakenings

incomplete
Japanese names
for cate and the sm game.

Basics
In Japan, the family name comes first and the given name comes second. There are 209 kanji that can legally be in a Japanese name. These are listed here.

All names are legally written in kanji, but people often tend to write their names in either Hiragana or Katakana. Generally people will use hiragana, but girls often use katakana, to be cute or for other reasons that I'm not totally sure of.

While names that end in ~ko are common for girls, this trend is on its way out.

Information on name trends throughout the last century

More name resources:
http://www.japanese-names.net/

Female Names

Ami
Aya
Ayako
千明 Chiaki
Keiko
Kyoko
Mika
Miki
美弥子 Miyako
Mizuho
菜々子 Nanako
Rika
貴子 Takako

incomplete

Male Names

Hiroyuki
Ken
Kennichi
光司 Koji
Manahume
崇 Takashi
Toshio
Yasuharu
Yoshitaka

incomplete

Family Names
There really isn't much variation in Japanese family names. I mean, there are some but you see a lot of repeats and there really aren't many "really weird and unknown" names. Most are composed of characters that have to do with nature or really basic things like rice fields, towns, etc. If you're looking for a family name, I would highly advise against trying to make one up and just find one you like.

佐藤 Satō
鈴木 Suzuki
高橋 Takahashi
田中 Tanaka
渡辺 (渡邊) Watanabe
伊藤 Itō
山本 Yamamoto
中村 Nakamura
小林 Kobayashi
斎藤 (斉藤) Saitō
加藤 Katō
吉田 Yoshida
山田 Yamada
佐々木 Sasaki
山口 Yamaguchi
松本 Matsumoto
井上 Inoue
木村 Kimura
林 Hayashi
清水 Shimizu
山崎 Yamazaki / Yamasaki
森 Mori
阿部 / 安倍 Abe
池田 Ikeda
橋本 Hashimoto
山下 Yamashita
石川 Ishikawa
中島 Nakajima / Nakashima
前田 Maeda
藤田 Fujita
小川 Ogawa
岡田 Okada
後藤 Gotō
長谷川 Hasegawa
村上 Murakami
近藤 Kondō
石井 Ishii
坂本 Sakamoto
遠藤 Endō
青木 Aoki
藤井 Fujii
西村 Nishimura
福田 Fukuda
太田 Ōta
三浦 Miura
藤原 Fujiwara
岡本 Okamoto
松田 Matsuda
中川 Nakagawa
中野 Nakano
Okuno
Hagiwara
Ioroi
Ueda

More reading:
http://www.jref.com/language/japanese_surnames.shtml
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jpnwgw/Names.html

(Post a new comment)

coeur_delanuit
2009-02-09 10:07 am UTC (link)

Hey Katibear. You, uhh, are kind of amazing. I don't know how you got the kanji for the names you have listed, but if I were to give you the romaji for two names, do you have a way of getting the kanji, by any chance? I found what I think are the characters for one of them whilst googling and trying to pull from other posting of the names...but I don't want to have the wrong one. If not, I can deal, but since you are the magical master of Japanese things, I figured I would ask! :D

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	rainbowling 2009-02-14 05:08 am UTC (link)
	Yesss! I can try, at least. I should be able to get them. :D (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

coeur_delanuit
2009-02-14 03:20 pm UTC (link)

Sweet! Yukio Shizuka & Akira Kunoe are the names. 静香幸男 is what I managed to scrounge from Google for Yukio, but uh, I don't actually have any idea if it's accurate or not. And even if you list the name with given name-family name for the name, would you still list the kanji as family name-given name, or would you reverse it?

Thank youuuuu. And don't worry about the delayed response; it happens. ♥

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

rainbowling
2009-02-14 03:50 pm UTC (link)

You definitely have the right kanji for Yukio Shizuka but... Shizuka is a given name, not a family name.

Akira has a lot of kanji that could work for it - the most popular is 明, which means "bright," "intelligent," or "clear." You could also just use the hiragana, which is common. あきら。

Kunoe gave me a really rough time because it's a ridiculously old name of some dude who lost a battle and had his castle burned down and might not be used as a name anymore, but it is 九戸.

Andddd. If you write the name in Japanese characters, you will always put the family name first, even if the person writes the family name last when they write their name in romaji.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	coeur_delanuit 2009-02-14 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	D: The website I found it on said that it could be either. Lying website. :[ Ty ty ty, bb! I was assuming family name always came first, but I like to double-check. You are exceedingly helpful. ♥ (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	rainbowling 2009-02-14 03:58 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, I don't think that's correct. It's also normally a female name. Well, I love this stuff, so seriously. ANYTIME. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	coeur_delanuit 2009-02-14 04:02 pm UTC (link)
	Poo. Well, considering the game has already started, I guess will just pretend and assume that most people won't know/notice. Bah on lying websites. :XXX I am grateful. ^_^ (Reply to this) (Parent)

	rainbowling 2009-02-14 05:08 am UTC (link)
	I AM SO SORRY I DIDNT RPELY TO THIS EARLIER. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	raptor 2009-02-09 10:48 am UTC (link)
	HOMG I CAN READ TANAKA AND OGAWA AND AND AND YAMAGUCHI AND YAMAMOTO YOU HAVE INSPIRED ME I AM GOING TO GO PRACTICE KANJI RIGHT NOW! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	rainbowling 2009-02-14 05:08 am UTC (link)
	YAYYYYYY (Reply to this) (Parent)