Anyone here considering giving their child a Japanese or similar sounding name.

[Rzerox21xx]

I read this in the crunchyroll forum and I wonder, it would be really nice to put some Japanese culture into you like if God give me my dream of marrying a Japanese wife. It can be a touchy subject, your kid might get made fun of but when you think about it, he/she will get made fun of by something else anyway. It might offend people from that culture snice I read the Japanese is very prideful of their culture. Well I figure this would be a interesting debate. I would probably give my child a name that can be Japanese but can be English like Ken or Saya.

[Xeno]

I know we have at least one member on this site who has a child with a Japanese name, though that's in large part because she lives in Japan, her husband is Japanese, and thus her child is half-Japanese. Giving a child a Japanese name isn't necessarily wrong or anything, but in a western country, where those names are not common among those who are not of that ethnic group, it certainly would stand out. It's just the same as naming a Korean child Muhammed or a Russian child Steve. It's not wrong or unacceptable...it's just out of place.

You also bring up that it places Japanese culture into the child, at least I think that's what you were trying to convey, otherwise you're saying that giving your child a Japanese name places the culture onto you, which makes even less sense. This is fundamentally not true. Unless you have a connection to the culture through heritage, then the name is nothing more than a name. If you marry a Japanese woman, then that's one thing, because you child (not you) has a connection to Japanese culture via their heritage through the mother. You don't have any connection other than being married to a Japanese woman. If you marry someone of your own race (or another one that isn't asian/Japanese) then you've just got a kid with a funny mis-matched name.

With that said, you're free to name your child, if you ever have one, whatever you please so long as it's not a blatantly offensive thing. But at least be mindful that a child having a name like Hideki Martin Stein is definitely going to get them beat up at school if they aren't at least half asian.

Edit: Additional note about other forum member's child. IIRC her child's name was kept simple so that family back here in the west could properly pronounce it. That's another thing you might want to keep in mind. There is that whole language barrier thing.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

God give me my dream of marrying a Japanese wife.

lol omg what the heck hahahaha

But yeah I'm also picking up a small vibe of sexism in that statement.

[Xeno]

Woah, I completely read that differently when I was posting earlier. That kinda changes the vibe a bit. =|

[DaughterOfZion]

God give me my dream of marrying a Japanese wife.

Sooo, you're going to steal a Japanese man's wife?


Anyways, I'll stick with naming my pets after anime characters/Japanese name

[Rzerox21xx]

hahahaha my bad I didnt wanted to sound like, better God, give me a japanese woman to be my wife.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Hahaha oh man...

[shooraijin]

Rzero, you don't think that's starting to sound a little, well, creepy?

[Xeno]

Hey, people like what they like right? Probably shouldn't call it your dream though, since that cranks up the creep factor by about 30.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Japanese women are mystical, magical, perfect unicorns.

[Rzerox21xx]

wow my bad, well I'm not exactly in a hurry to get a girlfriend/wife, I used to be desperate but not anymore, but I do like oriental girls more, that's my preference. I'll wait on God's timing but there's a a lot of things in my life I have to change. It would love to marry into Japanese culture. I'm aware the chances of finding a Godly woman who's happens to have Japanese in her would be really low.

yeah I would like to name my kid with a cool Japanese name but if its disrespectful to the culture, won't my did be made fun of anyway even if he doesn't have a oriental name, I guess I would name him something like Ken, its Japanese but could be American.

it probably prevent situations like that Seinfeld episode where Jerry met a girl through the phone with the last name Chang and was excited over dating a Asian woman but then met her and was greatly disappointed.

[DaughterOfZion]

Considering my mother, a school counselor, has had children named Arson and Chemistry, among other strange names, "unique" names are becoming less weird, but it's still weird. And yeah, a lot of kids will get teased for their names, and if not that it's something else. Kids are mean and always will be.

(Side note: Arson and Chemistry are in the same grade, but sadly they've never been put together to start fires. Yes I know that was irrelevant :p )

[Nate]

I'm going to give my child the Japanese name Mt. Fuji.

oriental

Are you fifty years old or something because I'm finding it hard to believe that anyone under the age of 50 would use the term "oriental" in TYOOL Two-Thousand and Fourteen unless they're talking about ramen noodle flavors.

[Xeno]

Are you fifty years old or something because I'm finding it hard to believe that anyone under the age of 50 would use the term "oriental" in TYOOL Two-Thousand and Fourteen unless they're talking about ramen noodle flavors.

I personally find the ladies of the orient to be enchanting.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

You like rug girls?

[Xeno]

The ones I can walk all over are the best kinds.

[Rzerox21xx]

ummm okay I'm sorry if I said anything to offend anyone.

[John_Smith]

oriental

I only discovered that this word was ‘offensive’ only a year ago. I was shocked and quickly did research on it. Most of what I found were a bunch of people writing, ‘I’m Asian, have called myself Oriental all my life, and only found out that it’s offensive today.’ My take is that it’s safer not to use the word, but more power to the people who do. (unless they’re using it to purposely be offensive, which is another deal entirely) And I’m three decades short of fifty, Nate.

I think most people (guys and girls) are initially attracted to different ethnicities (to make Ken Ham happy: people groups). However, something like that should be on the far lower end of the priority list as to what to look for in a partner. This is from someone whose grandfather is part African and part Native American, and whose grandmother is an English immigrant.

ummm okay I'm sorry if I said anything to offend anyone.

Don't worry, you're fine.

Anyone here considering giving their child a Japanese or similar sounding name?

…And back on topic: I would give a child a Japanese name just for the sake of giving a Japanese name, unless you’re of Japanese heritage. But if there is a particular Japanese name that you like, then I don’t see why not. Er… does that make sense?
If your worried about teasing, then a safe route would be to give a child a simple-ish fist name, and save the creativity for their middle name. Shiro, Sora, Yumi, or Kaito might be okay first names, but save Ryuunosuke, Shichirou, and Hachirou for a middle name.

For the sake of sharing, my favorite Japanese names I’ve come across are Nagato and Hikari. I don’t think I’d name my children that, but I still like those names.

Chemistry

Chem for short? It actually kind of sounds cool to me…

[Rzerox21xx]

thanks, I can name my daughter Rei, and kids would assume it spell Rey, Jun is a nice name, Sara, I heard would be nice. Dan is also a option.

[Xeno]

I only discovered that this word was ‘offensive’ only a year ago. I was shocked and quickly did research on it. Most of what I found were a bunch of people writing, ‘I’m Asian, have called myself Oriental all my life, and only found out that it’s offensive today.’ My take is that it’s safer not to use the word, but more power to the people who do. (unless they’re using it to purposely be offensive, which is another deal entirely) And I’m three decades short of fifty, Nate.

Its still an offensive term to use in regards to Asian people. Its not as horribly offensive as calling a person of African descent the n-word, but its still a racial term, and no amount of general ignorance by select western raised Asians is going to change that. Its really no different than how Native Americans are frequently called Indians because of a massive misunderstanding on the parts of non-natives as to what they should be called (side note: if that is at all confusing, Indians are from India, Native Americans are the indigenous peoples of North and South America).

[Nate]

Just echoing what Xeno said. A couple of people are not representatives of their entire ethnicity. I'm sure there are blacks out there that aren't upset by being called a negro but I would not recommend using that term to refer to blacks by saying "Well this guy is fine with it!"

I wasn't upset or offended. I was bemused. The only people I've heard use the term Oriental are middle age because they grew up in a time when that was the word to use to refer to Asian people. I was confused that anyone who grew up in the modern age would have heard of that term, let alone used it (again, except in reference to ramen noodle flavors :V). Or unless they heard the Avenue Q song, but if they had then they wouldn't use the word either because of what the song says.

So yeah. I wasn't offended or angry in the least. Just poking fun. But still probably best not to use that word.

[PandaPop]

I think unfortunately this is just an issue of cultural differences, you can't really blame anyone for that. I am a total culprit of using the word oriental, gosh I use to say it all the time when I was 14-16. I even had a Chinese friend (she had only been in the U.S for two years) that I would use it around, and she never said anything to me about it, I don't know if she just didn't want to make me uncomfortable about it because she knew I didn't mean it offensively, or if she truly didn't care. When I was 17 someone finally told me not to use it anymore, so I made it a habit not to, I felt bad thinking back at how much I had used it, I hoped I never offended anyone. The best we can do when we find out about stuff like this is work on changing it. Just like most things in life.

As for Japanese names I always thought Riku was an awesome name for a boy, turns out one of the cool ladies on here named her son that ^_^! Kudos to Yuki-Anne on that one, I love it!

[Rewin]

My daughter has a japanese name but has no japanese heritage. She has blonde hair and blue eyes which actually makes it kind of funny. To be fair though, we didn't know it was japanese until we had already decided on it, my wife actually came up with it on her own then discovered it was a "real" name later. But generally when we tell people her name the first response is usually either "that's beautiful" or "that's different, how did you come up with it?" I guess it helps that it is pretty easy for english speakers to say and doesn't scream "I'm a japanese name!!!!"

[seaglass27]

I read this in the crunchyroll forum and I wonder, it would be really nice to put some Japanese culture into you like if God give me my dream of marrying a Japanese wife. It can be a touchy subject, your kid might get made fun of but when you think about it, he/she will get made fun of by something else anyway. It might offend people from that culture snice I read the Japanese is very prideful of their culture. Well I figure this would be a interesting debate. I would probably give my child a name that can be Japanese but can be English like Ken or Saya.

My question is, why would you want to give them a Japanese name?

[goldenspines]

ummm okay I'm sorry if I said anything to offend anyone.

Since you seem to be innocent in your words, I'll help you out a bit in understanding why everyone is being a little "eeeeeh" towards you concerning you wanting to marry a Japanese woman.

Ask yourself, do you only want to marry a Japanese woman just because she's Japanese? If you had to pick between two woman to marry (for example) where one loved and cared for you but was not Japanese, and the other one only wanted you for your money/to get a green card/etc. but was Japanese, which would you choose? From your wording, you seem to imply that you would pick a Japanese woman no matter what just because she's Japanese and this viewpoint is fairly racist, hence why everyone is up in arms about it.
Not to mention it's fairly disrespectful and creepy view of women. Are women any less because of their cultural background?
Hopefully you didn't mean it this way, though.


Now, in regards to the actually question of the thread, it may relate to the above point, but in truth, at least you're not naming your kid after an anime character, because that happens sadly and it's more eyebrow raising than anything (granted, I know a little boy named Kamille and his parents aren't crazy, so there's that).
In Japan, I think names are a lot more important than they are in the US. I mean, you can name your kid whatever the heck you want, though it's nice to be considerate towards that new little life because until they turn 18 they are stuck with whatever name you give them. So, if you think the name Ken or Sakura sounds cool, then yay, name your kid that. But if you're somehow trying to "make" them Japanese -ish in some way by giving them a Japanese name (even if you did make the effort to research the correct kanji spelling and meaning for it), that's not going to work. You're best bet is to move to Japan and raise your kid there. Then you hit two birds with one stone, you get to experience Japanese culture (fun fact, it's different than what anime portrays it as) and so does your child.
It costs a lot to live over there though, unless you live out in the rural areas (not Tokyo), so save your money. Also, learn Japanese.

[Rzerox21xx]

Well I would choose the woman that love me and cared for me. I guess I love Japan so much I would love to married into the culture but the chances to find a woman who happen to have Japanese in her and is a believer who love me no matter my flaws. So yeah I love the sound of Ken, Sakura or Hinata. they sound beautiful and I research their meaning. Ken means Fish, Sakura is Cherry Blossom and Hinata means facing the Sun.

I been to Japan and fell in love with the country and I guess Im desperate to go back there but I have responsbility here. I would like to do short term missions. I learn some Japanese phases by taking classes and being there for 2 weeks but I know my limitations, I wont be able to know it fluently or know all the kanji.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

...Naruto characters?

[Xeno]

Get a pet penguin and name it Misato. When you have a child eventually name it Pen-Pen. Most people won't get it, but it'll be kind of ironic and funny to those who get the joke.

[DaughterOfZion]

Really quick, on the orient/oriental thing, here's a pretty good article that talks about the usage of oriental: http://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/livewire/archived/oriental_rugs_or_people/
The main thing is, some people feel it is a term "westerners" use to classify Asians as the racial "others".

Back on topic, it isn't Japanese per say, but if I ever had two children and they were both boys I would totally name one Dio and the other Jonathan and see what happens. Or maybe Jotaro and Kakyoin if it had to be Japanese for some weird reason.
But I don't plan to have children ever, so I'll have to settle for naming my horde of cats after Jojo characters, whenever I become a crazy cat lady.

[Rzerox21xx]

Really quick, on the orient/oriental thing, here's a pretty good article that talks about the usage of oriental: http://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/livewire/archived/oriental_rugs_or_people/
The main thing is, some people feel it is a term "westerners" use to classify Asians as the racial "others".

Back on topic, it isn't Japanese per say, but if I ever had two children and they were both boys I would totally name one Dio and the other Jonathan and see what happens. Or maybe Jotaro and Kakyoin if it had to be Japanese for some weird reason.
But I don't plan to have children ever, so I'll have to settle for naming my horde of cats after Jojo characters, whenever I become a crazy cat lady.

As long as you spay and neuter those cats, that's extremely important, that way you can managed the numbers and won't be overwhelmed, it keeps the overpopulation down. which needs to be done.