Japanese Given Name
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in modern times consist of a
family name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...
(surname) followed by a
given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
, in that order. Nevertheless, when a Japanese name is written in the Roman alphabet, ever since the
Meiji era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...
, the official policy has been to cater to Western expectations and reverse the order. , the government has stated its intention to change this policy. Japanese names are usually written in
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
, which are characters mostly
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
in origin but
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
in pronunciation. The pronunciation of Japanese kanji in names follows a special set of rules, though parents are able to choose pronunciations; many foreigners find it difficult to read kanji names because of parents being able to choose which pronunciations they want for certain kanji, though most pronunciations chosen are common when used in names. Some kanji are banned for use in names, such as the kanji for "weak" and "failure", amongst others. Parents also have the option of using
hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...
or
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
when giving a name to their newborn child. Names written in hiragana or katakana are phonetic renderings, and so lack the visual meaning of names expressed in the
logographic In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced '' hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, a ...
kanji. According to estimates, there are over 300,000 different surnames in use today in Japan. The three most common family names in Japan are , , and . People in Japan began using surnames during the
Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
. Japanese peasants had surnames in the
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
; however, they could not use them in public. While family names follow relatively consistent rules, given names are much more diverse in
pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
and characters. While many common names can easily be spelled or pronounced, many parents choose names with unusual characters or pronunciations, and such names cannot in general be spelled or pronounced unless both the spelling and pronunciation are given. Unusual pronunciations have especially become common, with this trend having increased significantly since the 1990s. For example, the popular masculine name is traditionally pronounced "Hiroto", but in recent years alternative pronunciations "Haruto", "
Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese his ...
", "Taiga", "Sora", "Taito", "Daito", and "Masato" have all entered use. Male names often end in , but also (e.g. "
Ichirō , also written Ichiro, Ichirou or Ichiroh is a masculine Japanese given name. The name is occasionally given to the first-born son in a family. Like many Japanese names, Ichirō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: * 一 ...
"); (e.g. "
Kenta Kenta (written: , , , or in katakana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese baseball player *, Japanese film director *, Japanese kickboxer *, Japanese professional wrestler *, Japanese profession ...
") or (e.g. "Teruo" or "
Akio Akio (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese politician *, Japanese mathematician * Akio Ishii (石井 昭男, bor ...
"), or contain (e.g. " Ken'ichi"), (also written with , along with several other possible characters; e.g. "
Kazuhiro Kazuhiro is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * Kazuhiro Fujita, Japanese manga artist * Kazuhiro Furuhashi, Japanese anime director and supervisor * Kazuhiro Hamanaka, professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fig ...
"), (e.g. " Jirō"), or (e.g. " Daichi"). Female names often end in (e.g. " Keiko") or (e.g. "
Yumi is the Japanese term for a bow. As used in English, refers more specifically to traditional Japanese asymmetrical bows, and includes the longer and the shorter used in the practice of and , or Japanese archery. The was an important wea ...
"). Other popular endings for female names include or (e.g. "
Reika is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings *麗花, "beautiful, lovely, flower, petal" *怜華, "wise, beautiful, elegant" *令佳, "beautiful, rule, order, excellent" *麗夏, "beautiful summer" *玲花, "sound of jewels, flower" *冷 ...
") and (e.g. " Haruna").


Structure

The majority of
Japanese people The are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago."人類学上は,旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来,現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島(南西諸島)に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。" () Jap ...
have one surname and one given name, except for the
Japanese imperial family The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the House of Yamato, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the Emperor i ...
, whose members have no surname. The family name – , or – precedes the given name, called the or . The given name may be referred to as the "lower name" because, in vertically written Japanese, the given name appears under the family name. People with mixed Japanese and foreign parentage may have middle names.Power, p. C4-2. Historically, , and had different meanings. was originally the
patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
surname which was granted by the emperor as a title of male rank. There were relatively few , and most of the medieval noble clans trace their lineage either directly to these or to the courtiers of these . was another name used to designate
patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
descent, but later merged with around the same time. was, simply, what a family chooses to call itself, as opposed to the granted by the emperor. While it was passed on patrilineally in male ancestors including in male ancestors called haku (uncles), one had a certain degree of freedom in changing one's . See also . A single name-forming element, such as can be written by more than one kanji (, , or ). Conversely, a particular kanji can have multiple meanings and pronunciations. In some names, Japanese characters phonetically "spell" a name and have no intended meaning behind them. Many Japanese personal names use puns.Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges. ''A Dictionary of First Names''.
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2006
Appendix 8: Japanese Names
Retrieved from
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
on April 1, 2012. , .
Very few names can be surnames and given names (for example , , , or . Therefore, to those familiar with Japanese names, which name is the surname and which is the given name is usually apparent, no matter which order the names are presented in. This thus makes it unlikely that the two names will be confused, for example, when writing in English while using the family name-given name naming order. However, due to the variety of pronunciations and differences in languages, some common surnames and given names may coincide when Romanized: e.g., (given name) and (surname). Although usually written in kanji, Japanese names have distinct differences from
Chinese names Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are often ...
through the selection of characters in a name and the pronunciation of them. A Japanese person can distinguish a Japanese name from a Chinese name. Akie Tomozawa said that this was equivalent to how "Europeans can easily tell that the name 'Smith' is English and 'Schmidt' is German or 'Victor' is English or French and 'Vittorio' is Italian".


Characters

Japanese names are usually written in kanji (Chinese characters), although some names use
hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...
or even
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
, or a mixture of kanji and
kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...
. While most "traditional" names use (native Japanese) kanji readings, a large number of given names and surnames use (Chinese-based) kanji readings as well. Many others use readings which are only used in names (), such as the female name . The majority of surnames comprise one, two or three kanji characters. There are also a small number of four or five kanji surnames, such as , and , but these are extremely rare. The sound , indicating possession (like the
Saxon genitive In English, possessive words or phrases exist for nouns and most pronouns, as well as some noun phrases. These can play the roles of determiners (also called possessive adjectives when corresponding to a pronoun) or of nouns. For nouns, noun ph ...
in English), and corresponding to the character , is often included in names but not written as a separate character, as in the common name , or historical figures such as
Sen no Rikyū , also known simply as Rikyū, is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on ''chanoyu,'' the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of '' wabi-cha''. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspects ...
. Most personal names use one, two, or three kanji. Four-syllable given names are common, especially in eldest sons.Hakes, Molly. ''The Everything Conversational Japanese Book: Basic Instruction For Speaking This Fascinating Language In Any Setting''.
Everything Books Everything, every-thing, or every thing is all that exists; the opposite of nothing, or its complement. It is the totality of things relevant to some subject matter. Without expressed or implied limits, it may refer to anything. The universe ...
, 2004
122
Retrieved from
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
on August 8, 2011. , .
As mentioned above, female given names often end in the syllable , written with the kanji meaning , or , written with the kanji meaning .Hakes, Molly. ''The Everything Conversational Japanese Book: Basic Instruction For Speaking This Fascinating Language In Any Setting''.
Everything Books Everything, every-thing, or every thing is all that exists; the opposite of nothing, or its complement. It is the totality of things relevant to some subject matter. Without expressed or implied limits, it may refer to anything. The universe ...
, 2004
121
Retrieved from
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
on August 8, 2011. , .
The usage of has changed significantly over the years: prior to the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
(1868), it was reserved for members of the imperial family. Following the restoration, it became popular and was overwhelmingly common in the Taishō and early Shōwa era. The suffix increased in popularity after the mid-20th century. Around the year 2006, due to the citizenry mimicking naming habits of popular entertainers, the suffix was declining in popularity. At the same time, names of western origin, written in kana, were becoming increasingly popular for naming of girls. By 2004 there was a trend of using hiragana instead of kanji in naming girls. Molly Hakes said that this may have to do with using hiragana out of cultural pride, since hiragana is Japan's indigenous writing form, or out of not assigning a meaning to a girl's name so that others do not have a particular expectation of her. Names ending with dropped significantly in popularity in the mid-1980s, but are still given, though much less than in the past. Male names occasionally end with the syllable as in
Mako , better known by the mononym name Mako (sometimes stylised MAKO), is a Japanese voice actress, singer and a member of the band Bon-Bon Blanco, in which her prominent role is as the maraca player. She has also performed in a Japanese television d ...
, but very rarely using the kanji (most often, if a male name ends in , it ends in , using the kanji meaning "boy"). Common male name endings are and ; names ending with are often adjectives, e.g., Atsushi, which might mean, for example, "(to be) faithful." In the past (before
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
), names written with katakana were common for women, but this trend seems to have lost favour. Hiragana names for women are not unusual. Kana names for boys, particularly those written in hiragana, have historically been very rare. This may be in part because the hiragana script is seen as feminine; in medieval Japan, women generally were not taught kanji and wrote exclusively in hiragana. In Japanese, words, and thus names, do not begin with the
Syllabic consonant A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the English words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''bottle''. To represent it, the understroke diacrit ...
; this is in common with other proper Japanese words, though colloquial words may begin with , as in (variant of . Some names end in : the male names Ken, Shin, and Jun are examples. The syllable should not be confused with the consonant , which names can begin with; for example, the female name or the male . (The consonant needs to be paired with a vowel to form a syllable). One large category of family names can be categorized as names. The kanji , meaning ''
wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...
'', has the (or, with , ). Many Japanese people have surnames that include this kanji as the second character. This is because the gave their
samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
surnames () ending with the first character of their name, to denote their status in an era when commoners were not allowed surnames. Examples include Atō, Andō, Itō (although a different final kanji is also common), Udō, Etō, Endō, Gotō, Jitō, Katō, Kitō, Kudō,
Kondō Kondō, Kondo or Kondou (近藤 "near wisteria") is a surname prominent in Japanese culture, although it also occurs in other countries. Notable people with the surname include: * , Japanese ballet dancer * Dorinne K. Kondo, anthropologist * Kond ...
,
Saitō Saitō, Saito, Saitou or Saitoh (written: or ) are the 20th and 21st most common Japanese surnames respectively. Less common variants are , , and . Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese sailor *, Japanese women's footballer *, Jap ...
,
Satō is the most common Japanese surname, often romanized as Sato, Satoh or Satou. A less common variant is . Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese actress and voice actress *, Japanese actress *, Japanese judoka *, Japanese writer * ...
, Shindō, Sudō, Naitō, Bitō, and Mutō. As already noted, some of the most common family names are in this list. Japanese family names usually include characters referring to places and geographic features.


Difficulty of reading names

A name written in kanji may have more than one common pronunciation, only one of which is correct for a given individual. For example, the surname written in kanji as may be read either Tōkairin or Shōji. Conversely, any one name may have several possible written forms, and again, only one will be correct for a given individual. The character when used as a male given name may be used as the written form for "Hajime," "Hitoshi," "Ichi-/-ichi" "Kazu-/-kazu," and many others. The name
Hajime is the Japanese word meaning . In the Japanese traditional martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, Kūdō and kendo, it is a verbal command to "begin". Hajime is also a common Japanese given name for males. In the Amami Islands, Hajime (元 ...
may be written with any of the following: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or . This many-to-many correspondence between names and the ways they are written is much more common with male given names than with surnames or female given names but can be observed in all these categories. The permutations of potential characters and sounds can become enormous, as some very overloaded sounds may be produced by over 500 distinct kanji and some kanji characters can stand for several dozen sounds. This can and does make the
collation Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office fili ...
,
pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
, and
romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
of a Japanese name a very difficult problem. For this reason, business cards often include the pronunciation of the name as
furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana or syllabic characters printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known ...
, and forms and documents often include spaces to write the reading of the name in kana (usually katakana). A few Japanese names, particularly family names, include archaic versions of characters. For example, the very common character , "island", may be written as or instead of the usual . Some names also feature very uncommon kanji, or even kanji which no longer exist in modern Japanese. Japanese people who have such names are likely to compromise by substituting similar or simplified characters. This may be difficult for input of kanji in computers, as many kanji databases on computers only include common and regularly used kanji, and many archaic or mostly unused characters are not included. An example of such a name is
Saitō Saitō, Saito, Saitou or Saitoh (written: or ) are the 20th and 21st most common Japanese surnames respectively. Less common variants are , , and . Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese sailor *, Japanese women's footballer *, Jap ...
: there are two common kanji for here. The two characters have different meanings: means "together" or "parallel", but means "to purify". These names can also exist written in archaic forms, as and respectively. A problem occurs when an elderly person forgets how to write their name in old kanji that is no longer used. Family names are sometimes written with periphrastic readings, called , in which the written characters relate indirectly to the name as spoken. For example, would normally be read as , but as a family name it is read , because April 1 is the traditional date to switch from winter to summer clothes. In the same way would normally be read as or , but is read Takanashi, because little birds () play () where there are no () hawks (). Most Japanese people and agencies have adopted customs to deal with these issues.
Address book An address book or a name and address book is a book, or a database used for storing entries called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields (for example: first name, last name, company name, address, telephone num ...
s, for instance, often contain furigana or
ruby characters Ruby characters or rubi characters () are small, annotative glosses that are usually placed above or to the right of logographic characters of languages in the East Asian cultural sphere, such as Chinese ''hanzi'', Japanese ''kanji'', and Kore ...
to clarify the pronunciation of the name. Japanese nationals are also required to give a
romanized name Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing writ ...
for their
passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...
. The recent use of katakana in Japanese media when referring to Japanese celebrities who have gained international fame has started a fad among young
socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...
s who attempt to invoke a cosmopolitan flair using katakana names as a badge of honor. All of these complications are also found in
Japanese place name Japanese place names include names for geographic features, present and former administrative divisions, transportation facilities such as railroad stations, and historic sites in Japan. The article Japanese addressing system contains related inf ...
s. Not all names are complicated. Some common names are summarized by the phrase : the three kanji (, and ), together in any pair, form a simple, reasonably common surname: Tanaka, Nakamura, Murata, Nakata (Nakada),
Muranaka Muranaka (written: 村中 lit. "village center") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese baseball player *Rika Muranaka Rika Muranaka is a Japanese composer and music producer renowned for her songs in Konami’s ...
,
Tamura Tamura (usually written 田村), a Japanese placename and family name, may refer to: In places: *Tamura, Fukushima, a city in Japan *Tamura District, Fukushima, in Japan * Tamura Station, in Nagahama, Japan People with the surname Tamura: * Tamura ...
. Despite these difficulties, there are enough patterns and recurring names that most native Japanese will be able to read virtually all family names they encounter and the majority of personal names.


Regulations

Kanji names in Japan are governed by the Japanese Ministry of Justice's rules on kanji use in names. , only the 843 "name kanji" () and 2,136 "commonly used characters" () are permitted for use in personal names. This is intended to ensure that names can be readily written and read by those literate in Japanese. Rules also govern names considered to be inappropriate; for example, in 1993 two parents who tried to name their child , which literally means "devil", were prohibited from doing so after a massive public outcry. Though there are regulations on the naming of children, many archaic characters can still be found in adults' names, particularly those born prior to the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Because the legal restrictions on use of such kanji cause inconvenience for those with such names and promote a proliferation of identical names, many recent changes have been made to increase rather than to reduce the number of kanji allowed for use in names. The Sapporo High Court held that it was unlawful for the government to deny registration of a child's name because it contained a kanji character that was relatively common but not included in the official list of name characters compiled by the Ministry of Justice. Subsequently, the Japanese government promulgated plans to increase the number of kanji "permitted" in names. The use of a space in given names (to separate first and middle names) is not allowed in official documents, because technically, a space is not an allowed character. However, spaces are sometimes used on business cards and in correspondence.


Customs

During the period when typical parents had several children, it was a common practice to name sons by numbers suffixed with . The first son would be known as "Ichirō", the second as "Jirō", and so on. Girls were often named with at the end of the given name; this should not be confused with the less common male suffix . Both practices have become less common, although many children still have names along these lines. While some people may still believe this,
Lafcadio Hearn , born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (; el, Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χέρν, Patríkios Lefkádios Chérn, Irish language, Irish: Pádraig Lafcadio O'hEarain), was an Irish people, Irish-Greeks, Greek-Japanese people, Japanese writer, t ...
(see below), in ''Shadowings'', makes it clear that at least in his time (1880 to 1905, the date of publication), the ending was not any part of the name, but an honorific suffix like . Particularly, even though the symbol was "child", it meant "Lady" and was used only by upper-class females. It would have been ridiculous to apply to middle-class or lower-class women. Pretty much the same names were used by all classes, but Hana-ko was upper class, while lesser women would be O-Hana-san, with honorific prefix as well as suffix.


Speaking to and of others

The way in which a name is used in conversation depends on the circumstances and the speaker's relationships with the listener and the bearer of the name. Typically the family name is used, with given names largely restricted to informal situations and cases where the speaker is older than, superior to, or very familiar with the named individual. When addressing someone, or referring to a member of one's
out-group Outgroup may refer to: * Outgroup (cladistics), an evolutionary-history concept * Outgroup (sociology) In sociology and social psychology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contras ...
, a title such as is typically added. Japanese people often avoid referring to their seniors or superiors by name at all, using just a title: within a family this might be a kinship relation such as , in a school it could be , while a company president would be addressed as . On the other hand, pronominals meaning "you" (, , ) are used rather little in Japanese. Using such words sometimes sounds disrespectful, and people will commonly address each other by name, title and honorific even in face-to-face conversations. Calling someone's name (family name) without any title or honorific is called , and may be considered rude even in the most informal and friendly occasions. This
faux pas English words {{Short pages monitor Kabushiki Kaisha'') 1990. ''Nihon seimei yomifuri jiten'' ( "Dictionary of readings of Japanese names in Chinese characters"), vols. ''Sei-no bu'' (family names) and ''Mei-no bu'' (given names).
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
: Nichigai Associates. * O'Neill, P.G. ''Japanese Names'' 1972 Weatherhill Inc. * Plutschow, Herbert. ''Japan's Name Culture'' 1995 Routledge/Curzon * Poser, William J. (1990) "Evidence for Foot Structure in Japanese," ''Language'' 66.1.78-105. (Describes hypochoristic formation and some other types of derived names.) * Throndardottir, Solveig. ''Name Construction in Medieval Japan'' 200
Nostrand, Name Construction in Medieval Japan - $38.66 : Potboiler Press, Books for the Practical ArchaeologistPotboiler Press
* Society of Writers, Editors and Translators. ''Japan Style Sheet'' 1998 Stone Bridge Press


External links



o



surnames of Japan, Shizuoka prefecture, Okinawa prefecture and Germany.

Japanese names in Kanji and Hiragana.
("Museum of surnames)"
statistics of Japanese surnames. *

Namiko Abe, 2005
WWWJDIC
online dictionary with over 400,000 Japanese names.
How to read Japanese Names

Japanese Names For Boys

Japanese Names For Girls
{{Authority control Names by culture