Japanese Names and Titles

Do you know any Japanese names? Most Japanese names are composed of first name and family name. Different thing from Australia is that family name is followed by first name. In that sense, first name turns to ‘last name’ as middle names aren’t commonly used. As a matter of fact, family names vary. In Japan, Sato, Suzuki, Takahashi, Tanaka and Watanabe are the most common family names. Actually the family names have meanings come from locations, nobles and nature. For instance, one of our bloggers, Kohei’s family name is Nishimura (西村) standing for ‘western village’ as Nishi (西) means west and Mura (村) means village.

In terms of first name, parents name new baby as they like. First names usually include positive meanings like wish, love, elegance, intelligence and so on.  Kohei (康平) consists of two words, representing Ko (康) as good health combined with hei (平) implying wish for world peace according to his parents. As parents can give any name for baby, problems has occurred currently. Here is an example. A baby is named Pikachu (光宙) as his parents like Pokémon. It sounds lovely name, but when it comes to workplace, he might be looked down by the boss or even colleague because it’s unusual name and sounds undisciplined.

People in Japan commonly put one of several honorific suffixes at the end of names to address each other except when they are close. San (さん) mostly can be appropriate as it implies gender- neutral. On the other hand, kun (君) is only applied for males while chan (ちゃん) is for kids or females. In most elementary schools, teachers put san on every student’s name whenever they call in order avoid gender discrimination.