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

[jazzbeans]

Perhaps this is strange but, just to add, when I want to find out how to spell a name in Japanese.. I sometimes go to the Japanese Wikipedia and look up people of the same name or just the name itself. Ha ha, I use it for more uncommon/difficult names.

E.g., Etienne.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... 8%E7%A4%BA

That particular pronounciation is spelt Eteiennu/Etiennu (エティエンヌ). =)

The surnames that we pick for our children are the first surname of the father, followed by the first surname of the mother...example...If the father's name is Manuel Rivera Rogriguez, and the mother's name is Lisa Cruz Müller, so the full name of the child will be Marisol or Ismael Rivera Cruz... hope i could answer your question

Ahh, that's pretty interesting! Thanks for sharing, x.

[Inuzuka]

Yes, that´s a good idea, more simple and a bit quicker, than my suggested way . But as I mentioned, not always meets the japanese transcription the real pronunciation. So be creative and make your own

A small mark: There are no 'official' transcription for names from out of Japan - so feel free to make your own transcription.

There is a discussion about the way, how you should transcribe names into Japanese, especially on business cards:

1. Meet the writing
2. Meet the pronunciation

In my opinion, it would be better to meet the proper pronunciation, because the Japanese can already read rōmaji, but they often don´t know, how to pronunce a western name correctly.

As I mentioned in my last post, 'u' is often omitted in Japanese, so エティエンヌ 'Eteiennu' meets the pronunciation nearly perfect, I think. I thougt about the anding sounds, but I had no idea, how to transcribe it. 'nu' is a good idea!

By the way: I wish, the transcription in direction of japanese -> rōmanji would also be more pronunciation aware. I. e. why don´t write the japanese Name 'Yamashita' in a way, western people can read and prounce it more easily correct (without a deep knowledge of how to pronunce Japanese in a proper way), like "Yamash'ta"? Then it would be easier for us to pronunce Japanese quicker more better...

[jazzbeans]

Definitely. On [the Japanese] Wikipedia, they may sometimes have different spellings too (due to pronounciation differences), so it's all about finding the best fit. If none of them fit, well.. as Inuzuka quite rightly said, just make your own!

Having said that, one or two people have corrected me on how to spell foreign names before, ha ha. So, perhaps some Japanese people do recognise certain spellings (of well-known Western names)? S'why I look them up first now! I'm not sure if I was corrected because I was completely off the mark or because they have "standard spellings" of these things though.


Yeah, I understand what you mean about ローマ字/Romaji.

I don't like romaji and I try to avoid it, personally. There's nothing wrong with it but, another problem I find is that sometimes people write romaji differently to each other and that annoys me a little, ha ha. E.g., "wo" or "o" (for を), "wa" or "ha" (for the particle は) and put "-oo" or just "-o" for "-ou" (e.g. りょう = ryou/ryo/ryoo OR おとうさん = otousan/otosan/otoosan).

If you don't know any better, you could start pronouncing things incorrectly.

This could just be to do with me though, I don't know if anyone else finds this problem. Even the name 'Romaji' itself. Inuzuka spelt it as Rōmaji, which I'd say was a fair representation, but sometimes people use "ō" to signify "-ou" as well as "-oo". Ha ha, so I could be thinking, "Rōmaji = Roomaji or Roumaji" or something.

So, I dunno, I just think it's much more easy to learn kana... ha ha. (That's if you study Japanese).

Sorry for rambling, I don't think I made much sense or that what I said even mattered. =( But on the off chance that it did, I've entered it.

[MattBicknell]

There so many online tools that will convert your name to Japaneses or other language as like as Google.com translating tool.


Flash Cards Video Game Accessories

[benjaminsmith062064]

Hey...I found out about JapanesePod101 for the first time in 2007 I think and always thought it would be something good to follow up in the future...Little did I realise just how much there was here...I registered yesterday and I've been blown away by all the resources now at my disposal...So I'd firstly like to say thank you to everyone involved...I was going through the first few lessons last night and it said to come on the site to get my name translated, so I hope this is the right place and that it is still okay even though that podcast was made more than 4 years ago...I'm English and my name is Benjamin Smith (or Ben for short)...I know there are various sites that will try and do it for you, but I wanted to get it straight from people who know what they're doing...Thanks to anyone who can help me out =)

[taikutsu]

Benjamin Smith is written ベンジャミン・スミス in Japanese

[benjaminsmith062064]

Could you possibly put it into romanised form for me please? I'm really just beginning so I just want to be able to say it and write it out with latin characters for the time being...Thanks...

[veganarchist]

benjamin sumisu

[xeondark]

Is your last name bull-I-van, bull-I-vant?

Im at a loss as to what my name would come out as. Anyone help?

Stefan Bullivant

[benjaminsmith062064]

Thanks to the people who did mine...Can I just ask for some clarification on how to pronounce Sumisu? I'm still just beginning but the whole when-and-when-not-to-pronounce-"U"s thing is confusing me a bit...So...Do you still say it as 3 syllables or is it more like 1 (or 2)?

Also while I'm here if someone could break down the name of one of my Thai friends into Japanese in the same way that would also be cool...It's Panida Chompoobubpah...Help with both of my queries much appreciated...Thanks...

[benjaminsmith062064]

So 3 syllables? Su-mi-su? Or still more like Su-mis? *Sorry I'm still quite unsure about this >_<*

As for my Thai friend, it's a she actually =P

Anyway it's:

Pa-ni-da (Pah-nee-dah) Chom-poo-bub-pah (as written)

Thanks for helping =)

[benjaminsmith062064]

No one? =(

[xeondark]

I hope I'm reading it right now, but I would think it would be spelled　ブリーヴァント.
The dashes between the l's is a little confusing. I'm reading it as bully. Let me know.

Bu-l-l-i-vant

[benjaminsmith062064]

Can you put that into romanised form please? I don't know how to pronounce the japanese characters yet really I'm afraid -_- I'm just wondering if it would be said or spelled differently changed across into the different language as my own name does...If someone could clarify the pronunciation of Sumisu I'd really appreciate that too...

Edit: Ooops XD Sorry...Think you were replying to someone else

[Jessi]

benjaminsmith062064-san,

Your friend's name would be something like:

パニダ・チョムプバッパー (Panida Chomupubappaa)

I hope this helps!