Naming Suggestions!

brennamwk

So we are working out some paperwork with O'ikon to finally take home our little guy, Mr. Wonderful. I've been shooting around some names with my husband and I was thinking the forum could give us some suggestions as well! This is our list so far:
- Akainko: "red dog's child", the legendary inventor of the Okinawan sanshin whose shrine resides in Yomitan. We first got our love of Japanese breeds from visiting Okinawa and my husband living there for 2 years. It was a very important time of our lives.
- Saburo: the third son, because he will be our third and final puppy member of the family
- Dai: meaning large or vast, kind of a play on words for our exuberant runt with a big personality
- Kaede: maple, because he was born the month we had our marriage ceremony in October so this would reference the fall time
- Kazuhiro: harmonious prince
- Hiruko: the kami first born son of the shinto first man and woman who had to overcome his handicaps to become "the laughing god", references that our pup has overcame his smaller stature to be an amazing little one
- Aki: autumn, reference to his birth
- Aiko: little beloved
- Nobi: wildfire, reference to our little one's personality and to match our mother in law's dog named Kaji
-Tsuki: moon
-Buke: Samurai, military family (since we are a military family)
-Bushi: samurai, warrior
-Fushigi: wonderful, miracle, mystery in reference to his current title of Wonderful
-Kyoi: wonder, prodigy
-Anakin/Vader: brings balance to the two sides of the force (Nanook is totally the dark side, Kuma is the light) and because my husband and I love star wars! We wanted this just to stray away from stereotypical japanese names for nihon ken

Feel free to correct some of the translations! My japanese is extremely conversational and I really only learned it during my time in Okinawa, otherwise I have to look up translations for things. Mr. Wonderful is the runt of the Kiyoshi x Kiyoshi litter but don't let his small size fool you. He is big in personality and energy! He plays with dogs many times his own size and is very happy go lucky. He's 16 weeks old at this point and I think only weighs nine or ten pounds. We visited him about 3 times since his birth and my husband fell in love with him because he really reminded him of himself! (My husband is on the shorter side but he is an active duty Marine and loves challenges regardless of his smaller stature)

Kaja

You should choose whatever name you like most.

I will say that in Japanese, names ending in -ko tend to have a feminine ring to them (Hiruko, Aiko are both girl names). Which is fine if you don't mind, but worth considering.

Crispy

I think "Nabi" is also kind of feminine, as well as "Tsuki"?

I responded to your reddit post! But I really like Vader and Kazuhiro!

jigzzor

If you want to go with the star wars name, You should think about using the actual names of the dark and light side of the force.

Ashla = Light side
Bogan or Boga = Dark side
Bendu = Balanced User

These were the names of moons that orbited Tython. Before Jedi and Sith were the names of the users of the light and dark side. Everyone who practiced the ways of the force were called Je'daii. In those times they used both sides of the force which was called Bendu. If one could practice being balanced in both light and dark they would be the bendu. If someone went too far in the light they would be sent to the moon Bogan, If someone went too far dark, they would be sent to Ashla, and if they could balance both light and dark evenly they would be called the bendu.


Yes I'm nerd IDGAF.

I also like the name Kazuhiro, it seems like a good name for mr wonderful.

Kaja

Bogan would be neat because it'd have a duo meaning, apart from Star Wars reference. It's a slang Aussie term for a rural, laid back type of person. Used to be an insult, but now it's kind of become cool.

brennamwk

I really only mind if Americans view them as feminine, just because Kuma is always mistaken as feminine. Romance language names always seem to end in As for girls and I didn't think of that, but it quite suites him anyway. Nanook just confuses people oddly enough considering that its pretty straight forward. Thanks for your help on reddit CJ! I appreciated it!
And you know I didn't think of those names before in the star wars universe, but they do fit regardless of if they're canon anymore. I'll put them on the list which is slowly growing! We tend not to pick the name until living with the little one for a week just to get a feeling for his soul and who he is. So I will update when we finally choose one! I'm gonna cross off a few that most didn't like. Though our dogs tend to have multiple registered names. Kuma's full name is Kuma Karajishi, Karajishi being another reference to Okinawa and the shisa. Nanook's full name is Nanook Magnum Yakune which is a reference to an 80s famous husky from a movie and a polar bear god. Magnum was his breeder's name for him and Yakune means red aura which he's a redhead so it fit.
Most likely, Mr. Wonderful will also have 3 names!

Kaja

There are many people in America who study the language, watch Japanese cartoons or frequent the country and will make the tie in to -ko being feminine... but if you aren't around folks who know much about Japan you will likely be safe from their judgement (not that it should matter anyway -- dog names can be absolutely whatever makes you happy and you think suits the dog)! Kaja gets mistaken for a boy all the time regardless of her name ending in 'a', after all. Doesn't seem to bother her any

brennamwk

Its funny how the appearance of a dog also plays a role! Nanook is also mistaken for a girl but only because people think Alaskan Klee Kais look relatively feminine. Must be the pointed nose and big round eyes, it gives their face a sweet demeanor. Now that Kuma is older it happens less because his face has become more masculine I suppose to most people. My friend raises St. Bernards and they're always thought to be boys by most people just because of their appearance! I guess Shikokus tend to look masculine to people when they grow up.

jigzzor

Oh yes the names I presented are indeed canon. They introduced star wars rebels and star wars rebels took mention of those names and explained them.

brennamwk

I really need to catch up on Rebels! I finished season 2 and now I'm just waiting for all of season three to get online! I can't watch your video because spoilers but I will soon. We also considered Bodhi for a while, but ditched it because of the already famous dog Bodhi that a friend of ours owns from the AKK page. But Bodhi made a great pilot and field wireman in Rogue One, it got my husband so excited to see a radio operator actually doing something in a movie haha