Customer Reviews

Write Your Name in Kanji

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fun book filled with funny kanji names. It is useless, and even dangerous, for a non-Japanese-speaking person to attempt to use this book as a tool for coming up with personal names in kanji.

Readers need to know that most of the "names" in the book are not suitable for use as personal names, even though on the surface many seem to have good meanings. Naming is serious business in Japan. The Japanese government publishes a list of characters acceptable for names. Japanese national law restricts all personal names to those that can be formed with the approved characters. When one tries to get creative with his or her kanji name without a good knowledge of the cultural and historical connotations of the characters beyond basic dictionary definitions, the result is more often offensive than creative.

Also, many names explained in the book are incomplete or misleading. For example, the phonetic and denotative transcription for Christina on page 44 says the name means "a solemn Christian beauty" or "a follower of Christ." A native speaker's interpretation is more likely to be "Christ is afraid of women or a woman name Na."

Overall, a fun book but not a serious naming reference for professionals. A word of warning for martial artists: Do your students a favor by hiring a professional to create a good Japanese name. Your and your students' credibility for mastering the art will suffer if an unauthentic kanji name is stamped on your certificate.

This book takes a very misguided process towards rendering Japanese names. Western names cannot be rendered in Japanese kanji like names would be in native Chinese. The resulting combinations are quite odd and possibly nonsensical to a Japanese reader. The better way would be to find out the meaning of your name and then find the corresponding Japanese name.

The sample page for "Aaron" (my own name) was very odd and certainly not useful. Aaron has many possible meanings. One meaning is "shining light" which can be rendered "Kosho" or "Hikaru". Both of which are actual names. This book is an interesting look at how kanji are used but have absolutely no use for actual naming.

I'm trying to teach myself Japanese, got this book as a present, and love it. It exposes the reader to written Japanese while doing so in a non-threatening way.

I keep it aside for days when I need to practice Japanese but I can't stand to look at another kanji textbook... I'll pick it up, flip through, and have fun laughing at some of the (purposefully) sillier name-translations while still seeing Japanese characters. My name, Christina, came out to 'serene Christian beauty' for the 'serious'-meaning name, but there are lots of other less elegant ones. ;)

Overall, it's a great supplement that can make Japanese seem more fun and personal while still exposing the reader to the actual written language.

I agree with Chuang-san and Mr. Boone. This book is a fun quick kanji study, but it's also a powder-keg. I have lived in Japan for 10 years, and I must say that I find it surprising that anyone with a name created in the West who knows anything about the Japanese, would attempt to translate his or her name into kanji at all.

My friends, neighbors, co-workers, business contacts, and government officials (including the Post Office) here assure me that "western" names and terms are most properly written in katakana, which is precisely the syllabary the Japanese use for reading or pronouncing them correctly. I'm sticking with them!

Kanji is decidedly more beautiful than the English alphabet, and may be okay for a little bit of a show-off factor in the US or Europe for something decorative that will serve to impress or intrigue, but please do not delude yourself that it will actually work should any Japanese chance to see it, and as Chuang-san alludes, may possibly offend.

If you're studying Japanese, this is a great book to have. It helps with learning kanji. For example, if you're trying to memorize the kanji for "pearl", look at its readings (let's pick "SHU", the onyomi) and think of someone you know whose name has that syllable when pronounced the Japanese way. Let's say your friend's name is Ashley (not one of the 300 names already done for you). The Japanese pronounce it "A-shu-ri-i." So what you do is find the kanji for these syllables. (There's an index at the end.) I found "beauty-pearl-village-good". From looking at the way the kanji in other names are arranged, you can deduce that this would be read "A good, beautiful pearl of the village," because this book also shows how kanji are arraged in Japanese words and names.

However, I must warn you: The author takes a lot of liberties with mispronouncing American names. He freely lengthens vowels ("Megan" can be pronounced "Mei-gan" or "Me-ga-an" in addition to "Me-gan," which is how the Japanese pronounce the name), and he changes sounds ("Alice" can be "A-re-su", "A-rei-su", "A-a-rei-su", etc., in addition to "Arisu"). DO NOT buy this book unless you have a book with information on at least the 1,945 general-use kanji, or better yet, a kanji dictionary.

Despite its faults, however, the book is a very useful tool for learning kanji, which, as you probably know, is very important when you're learning Japanese, because if you don't, you won't be able to read anything in Japanese except children's books. Therefore, you will need all the help you can get. I recommend this book to anyone studying Japanese.

excellent quality text and very very helpful for the aspiring tattoo artist. this book will teach you how to write names that are not even in the book................very helpful

Kanji is complicated, especially for Americans. As a martial arts instructor I'm supposed to know this stuff and have found this book an excellent resource. Different kanji can have the same sound; hence each name can have a variety of possible character combinations. This easy to follow text helps you pick out the best characters for first or last names. It explains the root and meaning of each word. Among other things I have used this information to make a hanko (chop or seal) to stamp important documents with in Japanese style (like a signature). The only caveat is that it is about the characters and meaning rather than on the calligraphy.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

a very useful book to have if you are studying japan and want to know what peoples names mean or how to write your name in japanese, especially if your an american manga artist like me.

This book really shows you how to write your name in kanji.This really helped me and my friend so we could write our names inanother language besides English! END