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Japanese names and surnames. Beautiful Japanese names

Japan is a unique country. What is behind these words? The special nature, culture, religion, philosophy, art, lifestyle, fashion, cuisine, harmonious coexistence of high technologies and ancient traditions, as well as the Japanese language itself are as unique as it is fascinating. One of the most important parts of the language are names and surnames. They always carry a piece of history, and the Japanese are doubly curious.

Decrypt the name

Why do we, foreigners, need to know all this? First, because it is informative and interesting, because Japanese culture has penetrated many areas of our modern life. It is very exciting to decipher the names of famous people: for example, the animator Miyazaki is a "temple, palace" + "cape", and writer Murakami is a "village" + "top". Secondly, all this has long and firmly become part of the youth subculture.

Fans of comic books (manga) and animations (anime) simply love to take for themselves as pseudonyms a variety of Japanese names and surnames. "Samp" and other online games also actively use such aliases for player characters. And no wonder: this nickname sounds beautiful, exotic and memorizing.

These mysterious Japanese names and surnames

The country of the rising sun will always find something to surprise an ignorant foreigner. It is noteworthy that when recording or official representation of a person first comes his surname, and then a name, for example: Sato Aiko, Tanaka Yukio. For the Russian ear, this sounds unusual, and therefore it can be quite difficult for us to distinguish Japanese names and surnames from each other. The Japanese themselves, in order to avoid confusion when dealing with foreigners, often write down their names in capital letters. And this really makes the task easier. Fortunately, the Japanese are supposed to have only one name and one surname. And such a form as a patronym (patronymic), this people does not exist at all.

Another unusual feature of Japanese communication: active use of consoles. And these consoles are often attached to the name. European psychologists say that there is nothing more pleasant for a person than the sound of his name - but the Japanese apparently think otherwise. Therefore, names are used only in a situation of very close and personal communication.

Which consoles are available in Japanese?

  • (Surname) + san - universal polite treatment;
  • (Surname) + itself - appeal to members of the government, directors of companies, clergymen; Also used in stable combinations;
  • (Surname) + sensei - appeal to masters of martial arts, doctors, as well as professionals in any field;
  • (Surname) + kun - appeal to adolescents and young men, as well as senior to junior or higher to lower (for example, superior to subordinate);
  • (Name) + chan (or chan) - treatment for children and children under 10 years old; The appeal of parents to their offspring of any age; In an informal atmosphere - to your beloved and close friends.

How often are Japanese names used? It's amazing, but even family members rarely call each other by name. Instead, special words are used, meaning "mother," "father," "daughter," "son," "older sister," "younger sister," "older brother," "younger brother," etc. To these words The prefixes "chan (chan)" are also added.

Female names

Girls in Japan are often called names that mean something abstract, but beautiful, pleasant and feminine: "flower", "crane", "bamboo", "water lily", "chrysanthemum", "moon" and that Similar. Simplicity and harmony - this is what distinguishes Japanese names and surnames.

Female names in many cases contain syllables (hieroglyphs) "mi" - beauty (for example: Harumi, Ayumi, Kazumi, Mie, Fumiko, Miyuki) or "ko" - a child (for example: Maiko, Naoko, Haruko, Yumiko, Yoshiko, Hanako , Takako, Asako).

It is interesting that some girls in modern Japan consider the ending "to" unfashionable and omit it. So, for example, the name "Yumiko" turns into a daily used by "Yumi". And friends to this girl are addressed by Yumi-chan.

All of the above is quite common in our time female Japanese names. And the names of the girls are also strikingly poetic, especially if you translate the exotic combination of sounds into Russian. Most often they convey the image of a typical Japanese rural landscape. For example: Yamamoto is the "base of the mountain," Watanabe is "crossing the neighborhood," Iwasaki is a "rocky cape," Kobayashi is a "small forest".

A whole poetic world opens up Japanese names and surnames. Women are especially similar to works in the style of hockey, surprising with beautiful sound and harmonious meaning.

Men's names

The names of men are the most difficult to read and translate. Some of them are formed from nouns. For example: Moku ("carpenter"), Akio ("handsome"), Katsu ("victory"), Makoto ("truth"). Others are formed from adjectives or verbs, for example: Satoshi ("smart"), Mamoru ("protect"), Takashi ("high"), Tsutomu ("try").

Very often, Japanese names for masculine and surname include hieroglyphs that indicate gender: "man", "husband", "hero", "helper", "tree", etc.

Often the use of ordinal numbers. This tradition was born in the Middle Ages, when families had many children. For example, the name Ichiro means "first son", Jiro - "second son", Saburo - "third son", and so on up to Dziuro, which means "the tenth son".

Japanese names of guys and surnames can be created simply on the basis of hieroglyphs available in the language. In times of imperial dynasties noble people attached great importance to how to call themselves and their children, but in modern Japan the advantage is given simply to what was liked by sound and meaning. In this case, it is absolutely not necessary that children from one family bear names with a common hieroglyph, as it was traditionally practiced in the imperial dynasties of the past.

All Japanese male names and surnames combine two features: the semantic echoes of the Middle Ages and the difficulty of reading, especially for a foreigner.

Common Japanese surnames

Surnames are distinguished by a large number and variety: according to linguists, there are more than 100,000 surnames in the Japanese language. For comparison: Russian surnames number 300-400 thousand.

The most common Japanese names at the moment are Sato, Suzuki, Takahashi, Tanaka, Yamamoto, Watanabe, Saito, Kudo, Sasaki, Kato, Kobayashi, Murakami, Ito, Nakamura, Oonisi, Yamaguchi, Kuroki, Higa.

Curious fact: Japanese names and surnames have different popularity, depending on the terrain. For example, in Okinawa (the southernmost prefecture of the country) the names Tinen, Higa and Simabukuro are very common, while in the rest of Japan they are worn by very few people. Experts explain this by differences in dialects and culture. Due to these differences, the Japanese can only say the name of their interlocutor from where they come from.

Such different names and surnames

European culture is characterized by certain traditional names, of which parents choose the most suitable for their baby. Fashion trends often change, and it becomes popular, then some, others, but rarely who specifically comes up with a unique name. In Japanese culture, things are different: single or rarely encountered names are much larger. Therefore, there is no traditional list. Japanese names (and surnames too) are often formed from any beautiful words or phrases.

Poetry of the name

Vividly expressed poetic meaning is distinguished, in the first place, by women's names. For example:

  • Yuri - "Water Lily".
  • Hotaru is a Firefly.
  • Izumi is the Fountain.
  • Namiko - "Child of the waves."
  • Aiki - "The Song of Love."
  • Natsumi is "Summer Beauty".
  • Chiyo - "Eternity".
  • Nosomi is "Hope".
  • Ima - "The Gift".
  • Rico - "Child of Jasmine."
  • Kiku is the Chrysanthemum.

However, among the male names you can meet beautiful values:

  • Keitaro is the "Blessed One."
  • Toshiro - "Talented".
  • Yuki - "Snow";
  • Yuzuki is the "Crescent".
  • Takehiko - "The Bamboo Prince."
  • Raidon is God of Thunder.
  • Toru is the Sea.

Poetry of the name

There are not only beautiful Japanese names. And the names can be very poetic. For example:

  • Arai - "Wild well".
  • Aoki - "Young (green) tree".
  • Yoshikawa - "Happy River".
  • Ito is Wisteria.
  • Kikuchi - "Pond with chrysanthemums".
  • Komatsu - "The Little Pine".
  • Matsuura - "Pine Bay".
  • Nagai - "The Eternal Well".
  • Ozawa - "A Little Swamp."
  • Oohashi - "The Great Bridge."
  • Shimizu - "Pure water".
  • Chiba - "A Thousand Leaflets".
  • Furukawa - "The Old River".
  • Yano - "The Arrow on the Plain".

Cause a smile

Sometimes there are funny Japanese names and surnames, or rather, funny sounds for the Russian ear.

Among these you can mention the male names: Bank, Quiet (emphasis on "a), Ush, Dzoban, Sosi (emphasis on" o "). Among the women's funny for a Russian-speaking person they sound: Hey, Wasp, Ori, Cho, Hand, Rana, Yura. But such ridiculous examples are extremely rare, given the rich diversity of Japanese names.

As for the names, it's more likely to find a strange and hard-to-pronounce combination of sounds than ridiculous. However, this is easily compensated by numerous amusing parodies of Japanese names and surnames. Of course, they are all invented by Russian-speaking jokers, but there is some phonetic similarity with the originals. For example, such a parody: Japanese racer Toyama Tokanava; Or the Japanese singer Tohripo Tovizgo. Behind all these "names" is easily guessed phrase in Russian.

Interesting facts about Japanese names and surnames

In Japan, there is still a law that has survived from the Middle Ages, according to which a husband and wife are required to wear one surname. Almost always this is the name of the husband, but there are exceptions - for example, if the wife is from a distinguished, well-known family. However, until now, Japan does not happen to have spouses have a double surname or each of their own.

In general, in the Middle Ages, only Japanese emperors, aristocrats and samurai wore surnames, while ordinary people were content with nicknames that were often associated with names. For example, as a nickname often used the place of residence, occupation or even the name of the father.

Japanese women in the Middle Ages often also did not have names: it was believed that they did not need anything, because they were not heirs. The names of girls from aristocratic families often ended in "heme" (which means "princess"). The wives of the samurai wore names ending in "godzen". Often they were approached by the surname and rank of her husband. But personal names, and then, and now are used only in close communication. Japanese monks and nuns from noble estates wore names that end in "in".

After death, each Japanese person acquires a new name (it is called "kaimyo"). It is recorded on a sacred wooden tablet called "ikhai". The tablet with the posthumous name is used in the ritual of burial and funeral rituals, because it is considered the embodiment of the spirit of the deceased person. People often even during their lifetime acquire kaimyo and ikhai from Buddhist monks. In the views of the Japanese, death is not something tragic, but, rather, one of the stages of the path of an immortal soul.

Learning more about Japanese names and surnames, you can not only learn the basics of the language in a peculiar way, but also better understand the philosophy of this people.

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