This is a guest post by Philip Seyfi from NihongoUp, the online Japanese textbook. You can read more of him at the Japanese blog and Twitter.
Tourists and Japanese language learners often get confused by Japanese names, mostly because of the many misconceptions on the subject…
In this post we’ll look at everything you need to know about Japanese names, from the basics to the more advanced stuff like addressing His Imperial Majesty.
The basics
One of the most common misbeliefs is that there is too little variety with Japanese names, similar to the ignorant complaint that all Japanese are the same.
As regards physical appearances, it’s just a matter of not having enough contact with the Japanese, but in case of names it’s also an entirely false statement, as Japanese family names are in fact extremely varied.
According to estimates, there are over 100,000 different surnames in use today in Japan, compared to just over 200 common family names in Korea.
Common Japanese surnames
As mentioned above, there are quite a few Japanese surnames still in use today, but some of them are much more prevalent than the others.
The ten currently most widespread Japanese family names are Sato, Suzuki, Takahashi, Tanaka, Watanabe, Ito, Yamamoto, Nakamura, Kobayashi, and Kato.
What you may not know is that the written Japanese version of these names can be quite varied, as each family has a particular kanji (Chinese characters) that they employ when they write their name.
This presents difficulty even for native speakers, and is one of the reasons why business cards are still extremely commonplace in Japan, as the preferred characters will often appear with a pronunciation guide.
Honorific suffixes
When addressing, or talking about someone other than yourself, names in Japanese are appended with honorific suffixes. These vary according to a person’s age, and social status relative to the speaker.
Some people mistakenly believe that the suffixes are part of the name, but that is not the case. Thus, a single person may be addressed with a variety of suffixes, and it isn’t used when one is talking about oneself, and a foreigner’s non-Japanese name adapts one as well (ex. Philip-san, フィリプさん).
San
さん is the most common honorific, akin to English Mr, Miss, Mrs and Ms. It can be encountered in both formal and informal contexts, and it’s use is not limited to people’s names; for example, a bookseller is called ‘bookstore’ + san (hon’yasan, 本屋さん) and a bucher ‘butcher shop’ + san (nikuyasan, 肉屋さん).
You may well hear your name suffixed with san, but be sure not to repeat your name with san attached, it’s considered quite impoilite to use san when addressing yourself.
Chan
ちゃん is a diminutive suffix associated with babies, grandparents and young children, but also commonly used towards cute animals, young women, and among lovers & close friends.
Often, the names of young girls are abbreviated and then made more familiar and cuter with chan. For example, Natsumi (なつみ), a girl’s name could become Nachan (なっちゃん).
To avoid embarrassment, it’s worthwhile not making up your own abbreviations and adding chan of your own accord, but rather to wait and hear how the young people you know are addressed, so as to not sound condescending.
Kun
Simply speaking, くん is the male equivalent of ちゃん, and is used for boys and young men up to the age of about 20. However, there is a lot more to it than may be apparent at first sight.
The suffix is frequently used in workplace setting by seniors addressing or referring to their subordinates—whether male or female. It may also be used by females referring to boys or men they’ve known for a long time.
Another interesting place where くん can be encountered is the Diet of Japan, where chairpersons use it to address diet members and ministers.
Sensei
先生 (sen’sē, lit. ‘former-born’) is used for teachers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, and other authority figures. It is also commonly encountered where one would use ‘master’ in English, be it for artists or artisans.
Sensei is not only a suffix but also a noun that can be used by itself, meaning teacher. Just like さん, it’s considered most impolite to refer to yourself as 先生, even if teaching is your profession!
There is a number of other more respectful or specialized suffixes in Japanese, but the above-mentioned four are the only ones you’ll commonly encounter during your visit.
Other things you should know
We may have named all the basics, but there are several that you may want to know before visiting Japan.
For starters, the name of the current Emperor of Japan (tennō, 天皇) is Akihito. Notice the lack of surname. In Japan, the emperor is never referred to by his given name. Instead, depending on context, “His Imperial Majesty the Emperor” or “The Reigning Emperor“ are used.
If that’s not complicated enough, upon his death, H.I.M. Akihito will be renamed “Emperor Heisei,” hence the “Heisei” era which started on 8 January 1989, the first day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito.
When a member of the Imperial family becomes a noble or a commoner, the emperor gives him or her a family name. Conversely, if a noble or a commoner become a member of the Imperial family, his or her family name is lost.
In case you’ll ever have anything to do with law or contracts, the stereotypical Japanese male name equivalent to John Smith is Yamada Tarō (山田太郎), and Jane Smith would be referred to as Yamada Hanako (山田花子).
What is my name in Japanese?
In much the same way that we make foreign names easier to pronounce in our own language by parting with their native pronunciation (think Tokyo vs. Tōkyō how it’s pronounced in Japanese)
When you say your name to a Japanese person, they’ll likely try very hard to repeat your name back to you as you said it, but more likely than not they’ll repeat a name back to you that’s more comfortable to say in Japanese. Lacking an ‘m’ sound, Tom becomes Tomu; lacking an ‘l’ sound, Ollie becomes Ori. Embrace this and consider presenting yourself with this Japanese name.
You’ll also want to be able to write your name, which is done in the Japanese script known as katakana, specifically used for writing foreign names and loan-words. It’s very simple to pick up, and can be learned together with hiragana in just a fortnight.
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