ive only been in japan a couple years now but it seems that just like in other countries, the popularity of names follows the flow of generations.
common names for women in their 30s --> keiko, yoko, misaki, haruka
students in college and high school --> yumi, ayumi, yuuka
ellementary and junior high students --> yuki, aya[/img]
Your comment makes it sound as if it is impossible to write some names in kanji. Not true. What kanji to use, or whether to use kanji at all, is the parents' stylistic choice.
imontero wrote:Could somebody tell me the meaning of this name "Saori" ??.
Depends what Kanji the Parents decided to use. While the officially allowed Kanji for use in Names is limited, there are still (iirc) several thousand to choose from each with multiple readings and meanings.
Some examples for Saori might be:
¹D
²D
²—¢
Those are just the choices my Kanji input program gives me(and I'm not sure the first two would be used as names), but I have the feeling a creative parent could make up some other Kanji combos with the same reading of "Saori"
Some combos might make no sense. Like that last one(which looks like a name to me), whose Kanji seperately can have the meanings of:
² help
string
—¢ village
boggle :nut:
I have a friend named Rika —˜‰Ô(beneficial? flower) who will often sign her name —œ‰Ô(pear blossom/flower), because the characters are so similar but have a nicer(more feminine?) feel in her mind than the name her parents gave her. And there are many more Kanji combos she could use instead.
And I have friends whose parents gave them no Kanji for their name and instead use Hiragana, even though there are Kanji combos that could have been used for their name.
If the "Saori" in your case is a Hiragana name, then it doesn't really have a "meaning" and is just a name.
phew it goes on and on. Basically you make almost any name mean anything in Japan depending on what characters you choose. Because with names you can even choose characters and read them as you please.
So, someone actually (no joke) called his son ƒ†ƒjƒo[ƒX (universe) but the name is written ‰F’ˆ (uchuu, the Japanese word for universe). Of course nobody could read this correctly, but they still do things like that.
arglborps wrote:Akiko depending on how you write it can mean almost anything:
phew it goes on and on. Basically you make almost any name mean anything in Japan depending on what characters you choose. Because with names you can even choose characters and read them as you please.
So, someone actually (no joke) called his son ƒ†ƒjƒo[ƒX (universe) but the name is written ‰F’ˆ (uchuu, the Japanese word for universe). Of course nobody could read this correctly, but they still do things like that.
heh I think I'll name my child Universe just for fun :)
I'm thinking the reason for being able to read a name so many ways is because there is a limited number of sounds in Japanese, yet a multitude of kanji which represent those sounds. Japanese is so confusing... but I love it.
I also thought it was interesting that my friend, Akiko, had the kanji for the 'chapter' in her name. She didn't understand why either. :)
Miyabi is a very nice name. It may sound weird, but I really like those M****i names, Miyabi, Megumi, Mayumi, etc etc etc... I'll stop before I go bonkers...