Japanese Naming Culture
The Japanese usually have two names, the given name, and the surname. Like the Chinese, the surname comes before the given name. Contrary to the conventional naming patterns, the Japanese do not have a middle name. Therefore, the new Japanese moms are usually only concerned with how to come up with suitable first names for their babies. The Japanese people mostly refer to their children by their surnames. The use of the first names is mostly practiced for the children; the community resorts to the use of surnames for the adults. Consequently, Japan is one of the cultures with many choices of surnames. Currently, there are over 100,000 varied surnames in use by the Japanese. This makes it less likely to interact with more than five Japanese with similar surnames. The Japanese names are written in Kanji, which is a writing style is characterized by Chinese symbols but with Japanese pronunciation.
In the traditional Japanese society, names were used to confer socio-economic status and position in the society. Since the Japanese were considered properties of their emperor, the names were used to define their special assignments and positions in the emperor’s service. In fact, before the Meiji Restoration, a common Japanese person had no surname. Moreover, the given name was a complex name that reflected the area of origin and the social status. The parents would also use numbers suffix to distinguish between their children. For example, the first, second, and third sons would be rō, Ichirō, and Jirō respectively. Furthermore, the Japanese culture avoided the direct use of names and rather preferred the use of titles. The people viewed direct use of names as disrespectful. During Meiji, the government decreed that all the common people must adopt surnames to regularize the Japanese naming system. Upon the change of the naming system, people also began to use names to address each other, even as they dropped the overreliance on titles.
Choosing a Japanese name for a Japanese-American mom is one of the most difficult tasks. The naming process is done almost a week after birth, whereby the mother gets the opportunity to skim through various choices. The first name must have a specific meaning attributed to it. Every time this name is used, the mother feels the connection to the baby through the meaning of the name. The Japanese names are hard, for the non-Japanese Americans, to pronounce. For instance, many people will pronounce the name Sakura as saw-KUR-rah while the correct pronunciation is saw-koo-rah. This problem in pronunciation comes at a great challenge to the Japanese moms. As a result, most of them resort to the use of short forms to make the names more appealing to the rest of the Americans. In that case, the name Sakura will be shortened into Suki which most Americans will find easy to pronounce.
The Japanese names have cultural meanings. Even for the Japanese, in America, culture must be observed and this is done by attaching a cultural significance to a name. The cultural contexts in the Japanese names are also tied to the personal attributes of the newborns. For example, a name like Umeko is used to define a blossom and plum child. Hence, the moment a baby is born, the mother will be keen to identify his or her characteristics and use these elements to pick out a name that has cultural attachments. However, sometimes the mother may decide to bring out the cultural context with little or no regard for the individual characteristics. An example of such a name is Mika, which simply means beautiful and sweet smelling. The other one is Shinju which is a Japanese name for pearl. These two names are associated with beauty and grace in the Japanese culture. Thus, a mother who chooses any of these two names is professing beauty and feminine charm for the young one. Similarly, a name like Ryuu is born out of the Japanese mythical dragons that characterize its oral traditions which is part of the wider culture.
The cultural interaction with other American groups has had an influenced on the naming culture of the new Japanese moms. Like most Americans, the Japanese moms are also influenced by media and celebrity when making decisions about names. For instance, a name like Rina is a common first name among the Japanese people. This name has been popularized by movies and television programs that cast Japanese actors. As a result, the popularity of this name has spread beyond the Japanese culture into the other American cultures. The name has spread so much that many people fail to realize that it has Japanese origin. Consequently, the media has contributed significantly to the changes in the Japanese naming cultural norms. In today’s America, a larger proportion of the Japanese moms would pick out names not because of cultural significance but simply because they have been popularized by their favourite television channels.
Unlike the Chinese, the Japanese communities in America are more connected to their cultural names despite the systemic problems like pronunciation and spelling. Over the years, the Japanese have been forced to change the spellings of their names to match the American culture and the registration system. Nevertheless, the Japanese community in America did not lose the original meanings of their names which can be traced back to one or two elements of their culture. Hence, even when the spellings are distorted, the original meanings are not lost. The interaction between the Japanese and the general American culture has only changed the approaches to naming. The creative Japanese-American moms, especially the millennial generation, resort to playing around with the traditional names until they obtain new names without losing the attachment to the original Japanese culture. In fact, they come up with names that sound in Japanese and have meaning in the Japanese culture. For example, the name Aiami comes from two different names with distinct meanings. Ai means love and Ami means friend. Thus, Aiami means a friend that I love. A creative mom would give this name to a baby to express how much she loves the little one and considers it her bosom friend. This name can also be used to express the beautiful love and friendship that brought forth this particular baby.
