I was a little gutted when I got my inkan, back in March, and it seemed there was no good way to write my name in kanji. 
It is traditional to always pick ‘good’ kanji for a name - you don’t want to end up with a name that means death or destruction or, like me, have something weird or meaningless… like “an ant that leaves a village”. Hmm.
However… a friend asked her Aunt to think of some good kanji for me, and I finally have a way to write my name in kanji!
亜里尊
The first character (亜) is あ and means “Asia”.
The second character (里) is り and means “parents’ home”
The third character (尊) is そん and means “respect”
So, all together, the meaning is “I respect Asia, especially Japan, as my parents’ home“.
I think that’s really cool! I mean, obviously, my parents aren’t actually from Japan. But I have such an affinity with Japan that I can’t help wondering if I could have had ancestors connected with Japan, once upon a time.
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That’s a good combination.
I use 驢馬跡 (ろばあと) donkey tracks.
I think my new shodou teacher doesn’t like it though. I like it because it has a weird meaning.
Most of the Chinese students pick an English name for themselves while they are at the university. Some change it every so often too.
A Japanese friend resisted attempts by her English teacher to rename her at university. Quite right too, it’s a weird sort of cultural imperialism.
I suppose you could adopt a Japanese name the way Lafcadio Hearne did, becoming Koizumi Yakumo.
“What’s in a name…”
Hmm, can you ask her for me? I don’t want ‘horse butt’ or anything.
Try this: http://www.takase.com/Names/NameInJapaneseS.htm. I don’t know how accurate it is, but it’s fun!
my actual name is Ana but i hate it xD
and because i’m totally crazy about Japan, Anime and everything japanese, my friends started to call me Ayumi
I cant find the name Ayumi anywhere written in kanji
so.. could u ask how it’s written?
pretty please!
Hi there!
Ayumi is a good name - I have a friend named Ayumi!
Try this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayumi.
I think if I chose a Japanese name it would probably be Akiko. I often type Aki by mistake when I mean to type my name, Ali! haha.
thank you! ^^
yeah Akiko is a cute name
i feel an affinity with japan very much so also… i have often wondered the same, if i have ancestors who were japanese once upon a time… also i really like the kanji used for your name they are very nice =)
i also was unimpressed when i found my first kanji for my name… so i asked my friend kurosaki san to find me some unusual kanji… so unusual in fact, that even a lot of Japanese people ask me what it says because they don’t know the kanji… the characters used in my name mean a lot to me… 魁 (kai) means pioneer/ forerunner and 利 (ri) means profit… so i kind of saw this as being a sign for me to be more original with my artwork
and it pleases me… i need to get myself an inkan… ive always wanted one just never got around to it…. do you know of anywhere online i could order one?
Hi there!
Wow, the kanji for your name are very cool! So you’re not in Japan? I don’t know about buying an inkan online. I got mine in a department store in Nagoya. However, I Googled “Japanese inkan buy online” and a few sites came up. Even one where you can buy cute mini inkan on a keychain! So it looks like you probably can buy them online.
no unfortunately I’m not in japan yet… I’m still in university in the UK T_T
I’m just waiting until i have enough funds behind me so i can move to japan… i could imagine it is hard to get by at first… and I’m not sure my Japanese is good enough yet either… i only got 87% on my JLPT 3.. i have only been studying a year so i guess it isn’t so bad, but i need to speak it properly if i’m planning on living there… and yay i might just look into getting one of those cute mini keychain inkan sounds cute =]
thanks for the info =]
Oh my… 87%?!?! You should move to Japan now!!
I failed JLPT 4 and I still moved here!!
Knowing more Japanese would be excellent, but knowing any, and having the willingness to learn, is all you really need! I guess it does depend on the job you want to do though. In my situation, bieng an English teacher is about the only option (which is fine for me!) but I guess if you wanted a different job you would need a lot more Japanese…
ha you rly think so!
I’ve always been pretty mindful of how much of the language i must learn before i can live there
i thought that it would be kinda bad being in the illustration/manga industry (I hate saying that I’m an anime artist) but not knowing much Japanese. it would be difficult if i can’t give a good presentation of my work then i don’t think i would get a job!!
i thought about becoming an English teacher but i didn’t know what kinds of qualifications i would need for it. i’m going to have to work a lot harder to get a good job… kinda sucky but hey… i’m only interested if it is a challenge
which country are you from? (natively)
it’s gonna be a hard task getting to japan from here on my student loans and buttons! ^.^’
I think that’s great that you’re considerate about the language. Many people come to Japan with not a single word of Japanese! I came after a year and half of study, so I had the basics at least. Although I have much to learn and am still not very confident even just buying something in a shop!
To teach English in Japan at one of the conversation schools, all you generally need is a degree. They train you to teach in their style, so you don’t need any formal teacher training (although it doesn’t hurt of course!). I only had a weekend TEFL course behind me, and it was fine.
I’m from England. And yeah, it was pretty hard to get here o student loans and buttons, but if you have the opportunity to do it - do it!!
I have no Japanese ancestry, nor have I been to Japan (or even read Japanese - yet), but I chose a Japanese pseudonym for myself. I was looking for a masculine name meaning hope, and found the Japanese name 和希 (romanized as Kazuki) comprised of the characters 和, meaning hope, and 希, meaning harmony (all according to behindthename.com, where I found the name). I added to this given name the surname 三島 (romanized as Mishima) used as the surname in the pseudonym of 三島由紀夫 (Yukio Mishima), a nihilistic post-war Japanese author and playwright who died in a violent, public suicide. I guess I meant the name to convey a balance between the gentle ideals of hope and harmony and the nihilistic influence of a violent world. Now I use my pseudonym Kazuki Mishima (三島和希) across the Internet. I wonder whether I would use this name for myself in daily life if I were to visit or live in Japan for some period of time.
Yikes! In my previous post, I reversed the supposed meanings of the characters in the given name.
This is very interesting - thanks.