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[Opinions] Re: Japanese name popularity
in reply to a message by Lily
I love that they have the readings written beside them in hiragana... Wish they held the form better as far as the way they're set up... I'm kind of unsure what the deal is with the different columns... It's kinda weird... but I'll take the hiragana and put it into romaji for ya.Y is NEVER a vowel
R is actually somewhere between r and l
F is made w/ both lips rather than lower lip and teeth
Jpns. H is done at the front of the mouth rather than back and with lips closer together
suke- skayA- ah
i- ee
u- oo
e- ay or eh
o- o
ei- ay or ay-ee
ou- o held longer
ai- I like in tie
1

翔太-しょうた Shouta

翔太

ゆうき Yuuki
2

蓮-れん Ren



はると Haruto
3

陸-りく Riku



ゆうと Yuuto
4

颯太-そうた Souta



はるき Haruki
5

翼-つばさ Tsubasa (love this one)

悠斗

こうき Kouki
6

隼人-はやと Hayato

颯太

そうた Souta
7

大和-やまと Hayato

大翔

りく Riku
8

翔-しょう Shou



こうた Kouta
9

健太-けんた Kenta

奏太

りょう Ryou
10

大輔-だいすけ Daisuke



ゆうた Yuuta
11

拓海-たくみ Takumi

大輝

はやと Hayato
12

悠斗-ゆうと Yuuto

大和

りょうた Ryouta
13

悠太-ゆうた Yuuta

隼人

たくみ Takumi
14

陽斗-はると Hayato



かいと Kaito
15

誠-まこと Makoto (like this too, but prefer different kanji... though either is good)

健太

ひろと Haruto
16

大地-だいち Daichi

大輔

しょうた Shouta
17

一郎-いちろう Ichirou

陽斗

ゆうま Yuuma
18

奏太-そうた Souta

駿

そら Sora (don't know why this is popular on boys... always thought it sounded girly)
19

海斗-かいと Kaito

拓海

こうすけ Kousuke
20

樹-いつき Itsuki



こうせい Kousei
21

駿-しゅん Jun



ひろき Hiroki
22

太一-たいち Taichi

悠太

ゆう Yuu
23

亮太-りょうた Ryouta



かずき Kazuki
24

諒-りょう Ryou
Ok... This is long... Think I'll empower you to read the hiragana for yourself... since I already have it typed up in a fb note anyway:Did this up for someone on another site and decided all this effort ought not be wasted on only 1 person who may or may not get much usefrom this, so I've decided to make it public domain to access for those whodon't know so much about Jpns. pronunciation and/or are curious and wanting tolearn or to share it w/ someone else you know who wants to learn. I rarely makemy fb stuff open to everyone in the public, but this is an exception 'causethere's nothing private in here anyway.We usually write Japanese for En. speakers in what isreferred to as "romaji". It's a set of roman letter combos torepresent Jpns. sounds in roman letters. There are some alternative ways ofwriting things, but not what En. speakers would relate to... but would insteadmake them cringe. They're not"translated"; they're transliterated... and not just from kanji, butfrom the sylabaries as well (any kanji prn can be written in syls), so here arethe hiragana (2 sets of syls: hiragana and katakana... the latter of which havea similar set of sounds and are just written differently and don't need to beadded for the immediate purpose of this).あ - a prn. ahい - i prn. eeう - u prn. oo like in fluteえ - e prn. like eh or ayお - o like in oatsfrom here on it just sounds like the consonants w/ the vowelsound as rendered above unless I state otherwise re: the consonants. Vowelstend to be relatively consistent... ou is just a longer o sound though and aiis prn'd like the name of our letter I (so is ae sometimes unless you separatethe vowels... which can also happen).か - kaき - kiく - kuけ - keこ - koさ - saし - si or shi... is prn'd shi (she)す - suせ - seそ - soた - taち - ti or chi... is prn'd chi (like in cheeks)つ - tu or tsu... is prn'd tsu (ts cons. cluster unnatural to En. speakers at the beginning of a syl)て - teと - toな - naに - niぬ - nuね - neの - noん - n... orsometimes m... depending on the word it's written in... It's basically an endof the syl. nasal consonant (only end of syl. consonant occurring in Jpns.) andis a general nasal. If there is a consonant following it, its prn. maycorrespond w/ where in the mouth the next cons. is prn'd... which is why somepeople will write konbawa as kombawa... because be is a bilabial consonant andcan cause the nasal to become bilablial as well in some people's prn.は - haひ - hiふ - hu or fu... but neither of those is exactly right... the Jpns. h sound is a frontal hsound rather than a back h sound like we En. speakers have. Plus, the En. fsound is a labio-dental (lip and teeth) sound while the Jpns. f is actually abilabial (both lips... no teeth) sound and is what linguists would call abilabial fricative.へ - he ... except when it's used as a directionmarker and the h gets droppedほ - hoま - maみ - miむ - muめ - meも - moや - yaゆ - yuよ - yoら - ra (the r is actually somewhere between an rand an l rather than being exactly 1 or the other)り - riる - ruれ - reろ - roわ - waを - wo or o,depending whom you're talking to. Wo is more old-fashioned and a lot of (Jpns.)people don't even know that it can be prn'd this way, but I spent 4 yrs. inEhime where they still prn. it this way and got corrected at first for using oeven though I'd never heard of it being said wo before ('cause my college proffrom Fukushima never taught us that... they don't say it that way up there).Most people just say o, but it's ONLY used as a particle these days and not inregular words, so it's only an issue if you're reading full sentences inromaji, which feels extremely unnatural to me.が - ga ... ALWAYS a hard gぎ - giぐ - guげ - geご - goざ - zaじ - zi or ji... prn. is jiず - zuぜ - zeぞ - zoだ - daぢ - di or ji... prn. is jiづ - du or zu... prn. is zuで - deど - doば - baび - biぶ - buべ - beぼ - boぱ - paぴ - piぷ - puぺ - peぽ - poきゃ - kya (remember... y's not a vowel, so these willbe cons. clusters)きゅ - kyuきょ - kyoしゃ - sya or sha ... prn.'d shaしゅ - syu or shu ... prn.'d shuしょ - syo or sho ... prn.'d shoちゃ - tya or cha ... prn.'d chaちゅ - tyu or chu ... prn'd chuちょ - tyo or cho ... prn.'d choにゃ - nya (like in lasagne)にゅ - nyuにょ - nyoひゃ - hyaひゅ - hyuひょ - hyoみゃ - myaみゅ - myuみょ - myoりゃ - rya (themost challenging set of Jpns. sounds for En. speakers)りゅ - ryuりょ - ryoぎゃ - gyaぎゅ - gyuぎょ - gyoじゃ - zya or ja ... prn.'d jaじゅ - zyu or ju ... prn.'d juじょ - zyo or jo ... prn.'d joぢゃ - dya or ja ... prn'd jaぢゅ - dyu or ju ... prn.'d juぢょ - dyo or jo ... prn.'d joびゃ - byaびゅ - byuびょ - byoぴゃ - pyaぴゅ - pyuぴょ - pyoHave fun learning to decipher Jpns.

This message was edited 8/25/2011, 8:01 AM

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Thank you this is so cool! And you should definitely share it, I always wondered which names were really popular in Japan but never found a good list. I think many people would love it, on this board as well.I have holidays at the moment so tomorrow I'll have time to really go through it, Japanese names are so interesting. I love how you can spell a name different ways to get different meanings.I also think Sora sounds girly. Doesn't it mean "sky"? I find Sky girly as well. My sister used to love anime, and I think there was a character named this.

This message was edited 8/25/2011, 8:22 AM

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Sorry, I meant if there was an English translation as in Shota (the first name) and Yuuki, I can't see any translation for the other names :( Maybe it's my computer? I can't read Japanese.
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I went back onto it (after looking at the site again) and typed some of the names out in romaji (roman letters) and then gave you a Jpns. pronunciation guide and the hiragana pronunciations of things so you can look at them and read them yourself... btw... The list is of boys' names. I'd do them all, but 1000 could be VERY time consuming and I really should be in bed by now.
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Thank you so much!!! :) I'd love to have the girls list, if you have any time :) Thanks!!!
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don't know how to find the girls' list. gomen (sorry)
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