[Opinions] Re: Japanese names
in reply to a message by Aileen
Replies
I don't think Osono is a japanese first name ...
it can of course be written with the japanese alphabet, but I've never heard of it. Should be extremely rare if it has been used at all already. I suppose you got it from the Ghibli movie? In there the name is "Osono-san", seems to be "Sono" in Katakana with the "O" of respect and "-san" afterwards. Looks like some kind of title or nickname to me, but not a real name.
Hanako on the other hand is very common ^^
it can of course be written with the japanese alphabet, but I've never heard of it. Should be extremely rare if it has been used at all already. I suppose you got it from the Ghibli movie? In there the name is "Osono-san", seems to be "Sono" in Katakana with the "O" of respect and "-san" afterwards. Looks like some kind of title or nickname to me, but not a real name.
Hanako on the other hand is very common ^^
I got it from Kiki's Delivery Service in which they just called her Osono (in Japanese Osono-san).I still like it as a name though even if it's not really Japanese. Do you know the meaning of it though?.
This message was edited 2/18/2008, 4:11 PM
actually, I have no idea, sono is written in Katakana and therefore has no apparent meaning. Words written in Katakana are often of foreign origin, so I'm not sure where the name could be taken from, maybe from "Sonora". "sono" in hiragana usually means "that", but this one isn't really used for names.
As said, the "O" is part of the respect, which is never used in a name, would be way too arrogant and Osono-san would never refer to herself in that way, it's only others that call her like that respectfully. And usually one only adds "-san" to names, but not the "O" at the beginning, which is used for normal words like "O-sushi", "O-bento", that's what makes me think that it's some kind of title.
As first names f.ex. "Sono", "Sonoka", "Sonimi", "Sonoe", "Sonoko" exist and they can be written with the character for "garden, park". And Osono could be used as some kind of nickname for these. I sure there are some children that have been named after the character from the movie, dropping the respect.
As said, the "O" is part of the respect, which is never used in a name, would be way too arrogant and Osono-san would never refer to herself in that way, it's only others that call her like that respectfully. And usually one only adds "-san" to names, but not the "O" at the beginning, which is used for normal words like "O-sushi", "O-bento", that's what makes me think that it's some kind of title.
As first names f.ex. "Sono", "Sonoka", "Sonimi", "Sonoe", "Sonoko" exist and they can be written with the character for "garden, park". And Osono could be used as some kind of nickname for these. I sure there are some children that have been named after the character from the movie, dropping the respect.
O I like Sono and Sonoe and Sonoko :).