Wow, it’s been such a long time since I’ve been on Nameberry, I’ve missed this place!
I will soon be acquiring a pair of very adorable and unusual pets, which are native to Japan. In honour of that, I’m hoping to give them Japanese names I would have posted this in the [name]Pet[/name] Names section, but being that I’m looking for more human sounding names I thought I’d get better responses here.
Now, I’m aware that there are plenty of lists of Japanese names out there, but I’m wondering if anyone might have favourite Japenese names they’d like to recommend, or ideas of Japanese names that might fit my tastes (see my sig below)?
My only requirement is that the names are not too hard to say, and wouldn’t be too long or complicated for an animal to understand! I’ll have one girl and one boy, so suggestions for both genders would be helpful.
I had some Japanese oranda fish a few years ago and they all had Japanese names
I went with [name]Keiko[/name], Akihiro ([name]Hiro[/name] for short), Daisuke ([name]Dai[/name]) and Mariko. [name]Keiko[/name] and Mariko were girls and [name]Hiro[/name] and [name]Dai[/name] were boys.
I also like Sayuri, [name]Midori[/name] and [name]Sora[/name]
I love Oranda fish!
I really like Mariko and Akihiro “[name]Hiro[/name]”, they’re lovely. [name]Midori[/name] is also adorable, but I’m a little put off by the alcoholic drink of the same name!
They are tanuki, or Japanese Raccoon Dogs. Though I’m not necessarily looking for the names to fit the species.
I’ve always wanted to have two cats named [name]Sakura[/name] and [name]Anouk[/name], [name]Sakura[/name] being a pretty popular Japanese name meaning blossom.
[name]Hana[/name] also means flower in Japanese.
To find meaningful names in Japanese I’d either a) google translate certain attributes or words such as sky ([name]Sora[/name]), sweet (Amai) and raven (Karasu) or b) look to Japanese films and books. For latter I’d suggest any Studio Ghibli film or [name]Haruki[/name] Murakami novel!
[name]Haruki[/name] Murakami characters:
Sumire ([name]Violet[/name])
Miu
Momoko “Momo” (something to do with peaches I think)
[name]Reiko[/name]
[name]Eri[/name]
[name]Mari[/name]
Kumiko ([name]Miko[/name], [name]Mika[/name])
Haku (Sprited Away)
Seita (Grave of the Fireflies)
Totoro
To add to these there’s [name]Yoko[/name] and Yayoi (check out the artist Yayoi Kusama, she is absolutely awesome) and as for personal taste, I like the names [name]Akira[/name] and [name]Kenzo[/name] for boys, and [name]Aiko[/name] and Kasumi (mist) for girls. For a pair, and I know it’s pretty cheesy, but Wabi and Sabi would be extremely aborable. Not to mention meaningful.
And I mean they’re pets so there’s no harm in going silly with names
I love the suggestion of looking at films/books, hadn’t thought of that. Sakura is so lovely, but I think it’s just a little too obvious for me. I adore Miu, Kumiko, Ponyo, Chihiro, Rin, Totoro and Kasumi Wabi and Sabi are so sweet haha, but I think it would cause a bit too much confusion if I was calling their names!
Oh fun! I give so many of my own pets Japanese names, so this will be exciting. It’s really neat that you’re getting tanuki, as I didn’t know they made good pets.
Anyway, names:
Girls:
Haruka (from one of my favorite Japanese songs Haruka Kanata by [name]Asian[/name] Kung-Fu Generation… it also means “distance” so depending on how far the little tanukis are traveling to get to you, it could be a perfect name!)
Kaede (I like this for a boy as well. It means maple, and I wanted so much to use it in the middle place for my first son, but husband says it’s too weird for an American boy)
[name]Mei[/name] (Pronounced like [name]May[/name]/[name]Mae[/name]. While not overly Japanese sounding, it is the name of the adorable little girl from My Neighbor Totoro)
[name]Nana[/name] (another name that’s on my “Names I [name]Love[/name] But [name]Don[/name]'t Work” list as everyone would say nana as in “banana” instead of “Nahna”
Boys:
[name]Akira[/name] (another one of those “obvious” ones, but my love for [name]Akira[/name] Toriyama wouldn’t let me not mention it.)
[name]Ken[/name]'ichi (maybe a bit much for a tanuki, but, again, I love Japanese actor [name]Ken[/name]'ichi Matsuyama)
[name]Tatsuo[/name] ([name]Tatsuo[/name] Hasegawa… most of my boy suggestions are always based on real people)
Takeshi (I actually just like the sound of this one. Takeshi Obata was the artist for the popular manga Death Note)
I’m not sure if they’re even legal in the states, but here in the UK they’ve been bred to become quite tame and will live in the house like dogs (or perhaps more like cats as they use a litter tray!), I’m adopting a pair who had to be rehomed by their owners
I really like Haruka, they are coming from over 100 miles away so that would be fairly fitting! Kaede, [name]Tatsuo[/name] and Takeshi are awesome too
I love Japanese names! My favorites are [name]Yuki[/name], [name]Aoi[/name], [name]Sora[/name], [name]Kairi[/name], Riku(my brother used to play Kingdom Hearts and I immediately fell in love with the names when I heard them), Ai, [name]Sai[/name], [name]Yuta[/name], Takumi, [name]Emi[/name], Sasuke, Yuusuke, and Cho! That’s all I can immediately think of. Sorry for any repeats.
I would have posted this in the [name]Pet[/name] Names section, but being that I’m looking for more human sounding names I thought I’d get better responses here.