What's my name in Japanese? (make requests here!)

[maffa]

thank you for the answer...

well, Italian pronunciation is pretty the same as japanese... the vowels sound the same and consonants I guess pretty the same as english (with a few exceptions). if i have to write it in phonetic language (hoping you are familiar with IPA) it would result as " raffaéle (as it is) ġrĮéko"; if i should rewrite it with an english pronunciation, as if i should teach an English speaking SAM to say it, i would write raffffaEle gree-E-ko", with the multiple f to mark the double f, with a single E as in elephant and double ee as employee

thats why i would have written ラファエレ　in raffaele so that we have ra-fa-e-re instead or the final ル ru you put.

as for the last name, diphthongs are not easy to cope with... i tried to resolve it with gu-ri-e-ko , which sounds quite similar to my last name...

at the end, and this is maybe the point here, there are no mute letters in my name (as in Italian altogether). each letter has its own full pronounciation which stays the same no matter the word.

what do you think?

[QuackingShoe]

Ah, interesting. Well, I don't know anything about Italian pronunciation (clearly!), and am not familiar with IPA either, so I can only help so much. The way I did it is the standard way to convert English sound perceptions into Japanese, but if you're decently familiar with the Japanese sound system, then I say go with your gut, but also look for examples. My first reaction to your attempt was just based on the fact that most of the people that come here don't really even know how the Japanese phonemes sound at all, so

Looking more closely, I can find actual examples of the name Raffaele being transcribed as either ラファエレ (as in Rafaelle Cutolo, the, uhm, crime boss) or ラッファエレ (as in Rafaelle Palladino, the football/soccer player), and nothing for ラッファレ, so whatever you feel is more accurate. I wouldn't personally use either ハ examples you gave, and can't find examples of them being used.

I can see examples of Grieco spelled a lot of different ways. グリエコ is one of them, so if that feels right, go for it. I still can't be sure exactly how you pronounce it, so I still think グリーコ or グレーコ might be viable as well depending on exactly how the sounds comes out as (and I prefer to minimize the sound variation in a name because it makes saying it smoother), but I say do whatever you think feels best.

Since the whole system is basically a work in purposely corrupting your name into a more limited sound structure, the whole thing is kinda flexible. There are a lot of common practices, but there aren't necessarily rules. I've looked up a few things in the past and found the same celebrity's name spelled several different ways by different people. So you've really got some leeways for stylistic choice, I think, as long as you're staying within the general guidelines of how things work and paying attention to present trends and things that are already established. For example, there's less wiggle-room if you have a name that's really well-known in Japan. My name is Andrew, and I've pretty much got to spell it アンドリュー whether I like it or not (I don't, I have trouble pronouncing it), because it's what everyone in Japan expects. That or アンドルー, but the other is more common.

[maffa]

you're too kind QS thank you for giving me advice! Hepburn romajization rules that vowels should sound like italian and consonants like english, so as far as vowels are concerned im fine problems come with consonants, although...

My famous countrymen Cutolo and Palladino and I all share the same first name, Raffaele (no rafaelle no raffaelle, just Raffaele, double f one l, all the others are just typos). It seems that the choice is to be made between ラッファエレ　and ラファエレ, with the little ツ being the only difference between them... even if it would be closer to my real name, i thought to omit it though just not to stress too much someone with a sound (s)he not used to. The "fa" syllab doesnt exist and has to be made up with the combination of フ　and ア, and forcing them to even double it sounds too cruel...

as for the last name i will stick to グリエコ then: it is all right but just the initial グリ that should really sound like "grief" "grissom" and the like.

At the end, it will be ラファエレ　グリエコ　. 有難うございます

[QuackingShoe]

Whoops, sorry about that, it was of course written Raffaele when I was looking it up. I just managed to misspell it twice in a row in my last post

Your choice seems like a good one to me! And no problem, どういたしまして, etc.

[FuriCuri]

My name is Sean Gaines I also would like to know how to say and write my girlfriends name, her name is Amanda Sparks. Can you tell me which one is the last name and which is the first and in which order I say and write my name?
I appreciate it thanks.

[Javizy]

My name is Sean Gaines I also would like to know how to say and write my girlfriends name, her name is Amanda Sparks. Can you tell me which one is the last name and which is the first and in which order I say and write my name?
I appreciate it thanks.

ショーン・ゲインス
Shoon Geinsu
アマンダ・スパークス
Amanda Supaakusu

You write and say your name in the same order as usual.

[JaJaJackson]

Hello...My name is Jackson Fagan and I've looked up my name and it comes out like this, which seems correct except for a few things.
ジヤクソン フェイガン
First off, in my last name, Fagan, why is there the "so" character at the end? Shouldn't it be "no"? Or am I reading that wrong and the little squiggle(what is the word for that?) is for the "ga" character?
And for my shortened name, Jack.
ジャツク
Why is the "tsu" character(ツ) in there?
Is it to show that the character before ends abruptly? If so does that mean that "ah" sounds are dragged on usually?
Also would my name be in the normal order or the Japanese order, as I am not Japanese?
And how do you guys type in kana? I have to copy and paste.

[QuackingShoe]

Those are right, more or less, except it seems like whatever you used had some issues with the character sizes (or you're copying them wrong).
ジャクソン･フェイガン
It's not a so at the end, it's an n. フ　ェ　イ　ガ　ン. The two dots above the ga are diactric marks.
Your shortened name, ジャック, should have a SMALL tsu ッ to represent a glottal stop. You'd romanize it jakku. A large tsu like you have it would read jatsuku.
Similarly, with the ジャクソン, you actually entered ジヤクソン. With the 'ya' character large, it's read jiyakuson instead of jakuson.
To enter Japanese characters, you need to set up an IME program. You can do this by going into your control panel and finding the Region and Language settings, then adding Japanese to your list of languages. It's pretty self-explanatory if you go take a peak, if I recall (it's been awhile), but there are a lot of websites that can help you out step-by-step if you have any trouble.

[JaJaJackson]

ありがとう!
I appreciate it, really. =]
However, you said it was an 'n' at the end, but it has the diactric mark over it(if that's the same mark) and Jpod's katakana table says that is 'so'.
So what's up?
Also, since the character means 'no', does that mean the o is silent if we want it to be? Or always?

[QuackingShoe]

Nah. First, want to mention that a diactric mark is something that you add to a character (in any language) to change the pronunciation, like an accent mark in Spanish. In Japanese, the diactric is those two strokes, and they change the consonant part of a phoneme from being unvoiced to voiced. In other words, か = ka and が = ga. The difference is that you actually make a 'g' the same way you make a 'k', except when you make a 'g', you vibrate your vocal chords. Try the two sounds in isolation and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, these marks have nothing to do with the marks seen in characters like シ, they're just part of the character. However, they can have diactric marks as well, for example, ジ, as in your name.

as for the no/so/n/ etc problem, you're just confusing some similar katakana characters. ノ = no. ソ = so, ン = n. シ = shi (si), ツ = tsu (tu). They're difficult to tell apart at first but it gets easier with experience and knowledge of how they're written. So ソ is written with the dot going down, and the line below starting from the top right and going down and left. The same is true of tsu　ツ. ノ no is written this way as well, but obviously, no upper mark(s).
n ン and shi シ, the top marks move horizontally (left to right), and so does the bottom mark (left to right with an upward slant).
http://shodan.co.za/images/katakana_chart.jpg

Is that any clearer? Hope it helps.

[Tezza_C]

Hello All! Just saying thanks to all the translators for the great work you put in.

I'm going to Japan in a month and looking for my name translation.

Terence Cheong


Thanks

[QuackingShoe]

Terence = テレンス
Cheong is Chinese? From poking around, I believe チョン works, if so. However, if you know the characters used to write your name, you could also use those. It'd end up with a different reading, though. I believe that's fairly standard practice?

[k_ai]

Hello!
I'm not too curious about my first name, since I know how I would say it. My last name seems a bit more difficult, so that's what I need help with...
My name is: Kaija Cedras -- Pronounced kai-ah, seedras (sorry, people often misread my name because of the 'j')

Arigatou gozaimasu!

[Hiroko]

カイア　シードラス in Kana.

Hello!
I'm not too curious about my first name, since I know how I would say it. My last name seems a bit more difficult, so that's what I need help with...
My name is: Kaija Cedras -- Pronounced kai-ah, seedras (sorry, people often misread my name because of the 'j')

Arigatou gozaimasu!

[Tezza_C]

Terence = テレンス
Cheong is Chinese? From poking around, I believe チョン works, if so. However, if you know the characters used to write your name, you could also use those. It'd end up with a different reading, though. I believe that's fairly standard practice?

Hey Thanks! How would I say it?

Would Tezza-san be better?