Wednesday, July 20, 2011

If you were given a list of Japanese names in English letters, how would you tell which were girls names?

Question:


Any good resource to tell which names are names of girls
which names are names of guys
and which names can be names of girls or guys

You might encounter such a list in situations involving Japan and therefor this is an appropriate question for travel => Japan

Any website to help know the difference between guys and girls names?

Answer:


These days, you basically just have to become familiar with Japanese names. There are some types of names that are more common for men than for women and vice versa, and you can use that as a guide, but it's not foolproof. For example, many names that include the element mi (e.g. Masami, Aimi, Akemi, Izumi, Manami, Miki, Misaki) are women's names. However, some names that include the mi sound (e.g. Fumiya, Takumi) that can be men's names. In my experience, endings like mi, na, ri, ka, ho, and ko are very common in women's names, while endings like ro, mu, to, ta, and ki are more common in men's names. BUT there are ALWAYS names that don't fit these patterns at all (e.g. the previously mentioned Takumi, girls' names like Saki, the female versions of Yuki and Natsuki, etc) and there are many names that appear to be unisex names when written in English letters. In those cases, the distinction (if there is one) will be in the kanji used to write the name. Keep in mind that for most names there are many many ways to write the name using kanji, but probably only one way to write it in English letters.

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