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

[mewes6190]

Hello Nick-san!

Welcome to the forums, and I wish you luck and fun on your road to learning japanese.

As for your question, I might not be the best one to translate names into katakana, I often miss some small detail, but I can tell you, that there is no "Translation" per se to ones name. The japanese simply use their syllable system to transcribe the name. So in your case, your first name would consist of the syllable NI pluss a short "K", which would be written in in Katakana with the syllable "KU" plus a small sign indicating that you have to pronounce the "K" hard. So it would be ニック, which would be transcribed into romaji as "Nikku" (Often, the U at the end is silent).

The same would apply to your last name, only here I'm not one hundred percent sure, how the japanese would transcribe it, and it depends on how you pronounce the "berghs"-part of your name. If it rhymes with "herds", it might be "アッセルベーグス" so, "asserubeegusu", but I'm not sure about it.

So it might be ニック　アッセルベーグス, nikku asserubeegusu, but there are better transcribers here than me.

Have fun
Kurokuma

[Asselberghs]

Thank you Kurokuma-san.
I asked my father for the pronunciation as we in Denmark over time it have turned into something else and it´s lost it´s original pronunciation.
Rather than me trying to text transcribe and loose some meaning to it I´ve recoreded it to MP3 format, put it on my webserver where I host my website.
There´s no danger or problem with this file.
So here´s a link so you can hear the pronunciation : http://www.asselberghs.dk/Asselberghs.mp3
What would that sound like? and look like in romaji if it were "converted" to Japanese?
Thanks for your help.

[thegooseking]

Nick-san, Kurokuma-san,

a short "K", which would be written in in Katakana with the syllable "KU" plus a small sign indicating that you have to pronounce the "K" hard.

This is certainly true, but it is sometimes quite hard to understand what it means.

The best way I think I ever heard it described was that, at the end of the previous syllable, you move your mouth into a K 'shape', but pause slightly before you actually pronounce the 'KU'. I've heard a lot of people talk about the pause, but I think moving your mouth into the right shape before pausing really helps it sound natural.

Also, Nick-san, your recording makes it sound like it would be "a - sse - ru - be - ri - gu - su", but I think it's a lot more important how you pronounce it than how it was originally pronounced. I'm in a similar position: My surname is a Scottish corruption of an anglicisation of a modernisation of an Old Irish name, but I don't go back to the original source. My surname in (romanised) katakana is "uiiransu" but the Old Irish would be "fairan" - big difference!

小狼

[community.japanese]

Nick-san, Kurokuma-san, 小狼san,
thank you very much for all the efforts and helps, everyone!
Wow, I've never seen a link to listen to the pronunciation of names
Thank you, Nick-san! That's brilliant!
I've heard it as アッサーベリス [assaaberisu], but from the spelling, perhaps アッサーベリフス [assaaberifusu]
is closer and more proper? How would you write phonetically?
I tried to listen several times, but I wasn't 100% sure...

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[Asselberghs]

Thank you Kurokuma-san, 小狼san and Natsuko-san
As for writing it in phonetics I think I would do it like this, the original saying: A-ssel-ber-ghs.
In my daily use and what the "danish language" has done to it, it has become something close to this I think:
A-ssel-ber-s or A-ssel-bers the gh or ghs sound has dissapeared over the years. Is that what you mean with writing it phonetically Natsuko-san?

[community.japanese]

Nick-san,
thank you for the phonetic tips!
Yes, it helps a lot!
Since the sound of ph has disappeared, according to what you wrote,
it could be アッセルベルス [a sse ru be ru su].
We don't have consonant-only sounds like L or R in your name, so we need to add vowel there.
Usually we add U after that.

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[keira031627]

My name is Keira, I would love to know how to translate my name. Thank you.

[mmmason8967]

Assuming that you pronounce Keira like "key-rah", the Japanese will be:-

キーラ　(ki-i-ra)

マイケル
Edited to fix the typo...

[keira031627]

I thought it might be, I think they translate it as Kira, but i was not sure! Thanks
and that is right my name is pronounced like key- rah
when I tried to translate it, I assumed it would be ki-ra きら or ｷﾗ since they both sound the same.
It is just exactly the same sounding name as saying akira but dropping the a.

[mmmason8967]

Sorry! I spelt it wrongly (as ケーラ) owing to brain-fade. I've fixed it so that it says キーラ, which is what I intended to type.

You are right: きら and キラ are pronounced exactly the same. Since foreign names are always written using katakana, キラ would be the one to use.　I think that キーラ (kiira) is better than キラ (kira). キーラ sounds like "keeler" and キラ sounds like "killer"--the Japanese i sound is very short.

マイケル

[keira031627]

You are the best mmmason8967. Thank you.

[community.japanese]

keira-san, マイケルsan,
thank you for the great help, マイケルさん！
So, Keira-san, did you decide which one you'd go for?
When we write foreign names, we rely on the original sounds/pronunciations.
This means it's up to you if you want ケイラ、ケーラ、キーラ、キイラ or any other one
Like マイケルsan pointed out, your name seems to have a longer sound in Kei- part.
So, I'd recommend one of those four, over キラ.

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[cwningen4572]

こんにちは！:)

I'd really like some help with my name, though it might be easy; Rhosyn is Welsh for Rose, so I assume this would be ローズ。I'm not sure what Rhosyn would be. Is anyone able to help?

[mmmason8967]

I'd really like some help with my name, though it might be easy; Rhosyn is Welsh for Rose, so I assume this would be ローズ。I'm not sure what Rhosyn would be. Is anyone able to help?

The Japanese version of your name is the closest approximation to the original pronunciation that can be done using Japanese syllables. In your case I think it will be ロシン or roshin.

マイケル

[cwningen4572]

The Japanese version of your name is the closest approximation to the original pronunciation that can be done using Japanese syllables. In your case I think it will be ロシン or roshin.

マイケル

ありがとうございます！