Did you see the tag I made for Rakka that's on facebook? Those are really easy. I can post how I did it. I basically just used #6 plastic, sanded it to make it "cloudy" and wrote on it with permanent marker, then baked it in the oven.
eta: Just saw that Calia posted about shrinky dinks. That's the same idea behind the #6 plastic. You can buy shrink plastic, too, which might work better. Wouldn't know. I tend not to buy things when I can use garbage to do the same thing. )
They're really easy to make and cost nothing. I'll post a tutorial, too.
Anyway, back to Japanese names... could you phonetically spell a foreign name in hiragana, then find corresponding kanji and basically make up a Japanese name that sounded like the English (or other language) name? I don't know if this breaks all the rules of Japanese names or what, but I tried it with my name using jisho.org
So, take the name Heidi. So using hiragana, I would do ha-i-di : はいぢ
Some kanji words for はい (hai) are: 灰 - ash 佩 - ornamental bell 拝 - bowing one's head 杯 - sake cup (there are more)
Or, I could do は (ha) and い (i) separately.
は (ha): 刃 - edge of a sword 歯 - tooth 葉 - leaf 翳 - fan
い (i): 位 - rank, decimal, counter for ghosts 医 - medicine, healing art, doctor 夷 - barbarian 威 - power, authority, majesty 猪 - boar (and so on)
and the two kanji for ぢ (di) I found were: 道 and 路, both meaning road or pathway.
So, could I say my name was:
灰道 - ash road 佩路 - bell pathway 刃猪路 - blade boar path 葉医道 - leaf medicine road 歯威道 - tooth power path (and so on)
and pronounce those more or less the same as Heidi?
... Or would it be more appropriate to look up the meaning of the name and find the Japanese word that meant the same thing? For instance, Heidi means exalted, noble character.
In my opinion, as someone who has seen this done a lot, it would be better to match meanings of names rather than arbitrarily cobbling something together from hiragana. The "word salad" approach with Kanji/character use can produce some neat, individualized names, or it can sound downright silly and reflect back on whomever chose the name as someone who is misappropriating the language, at best. Seeing something like "葉医道" would seem extremely awkward to me, for example. But my reaction comes as a Chinese speaker/reader with only limited knowledge of Japanese. If you go either route, I'd definitely consult with a native speaker before making a final decision!
That said, my own dogs have Chinese names that are considered quite unusual to most Chinese speakers, and most certainly don't exist as Japanese combos... in part because they DID come from a cobbled together approach. My boyfriend chose the first character, I chose the second. But I swear, there was an aesthetic logic behind our decisions to name our pets the "precious tummy" (Bowdu 寶肚) and "precious companion" (Bowpi 寶媲). Maybe because I know Bowpi's name, in particular, sounds and looks strange, I'm a bit sensitive to naming conventions.
The process can certainly get more complicated than just calling a dog "Blackie" or "Lucky" or "Spot" or just picking a name off a list!
Foreign names are written out using Katakana, not Hiragana or Kanji. For example, the word bread in Japanese is "pan" (portuguese) and it's written out as パン (katakana) not ぱん (hiragana) because it's a foreign word. My name for example would be written out セシリア (Seshiria/Cecilia), but never せしりあ (in hiragana).
McDonalds: マクドナルド (Makudonarudo), never: まくどなるど.
I guess for fun we could write our names out in Hiragana and Kanji, but it defeats the whole purpose of the Katakana writing system.
Also, since our names are not Japanese, I can imagine a Japanese person having a hard time picking out the correct sound of the Kanji to match our names...since each kanji can be pronounced a number of different ways.
Yeah, mashing together kanji to try to phonetically spell out an English name is very flawed, though you will probably manage to get some chuckles and head scratching out of anyone who reads Japanese.
My last name is Ryan so I choose the characters 雷 闇 to put on my official seal. It was just to see if I could get away with it but no one has ever complained. The first kanji is for thunder/lightning and the 2nd darkness. I think it sounds like a professional wrestlers name or something but still love how the people give it this strange look every time I use it.
Comments
AND
now I see on Juno's KKA pedigree that same kanji in her name, as Shigeru wrote it! It all comes together.
Did you see the tag I made for Rakka that's on facebook? Those are really easy. I can post how I did it. I basically just used #6 plastic, sanded it to make it "cloudy" and wrote on it with permanent marker, then baked it in the oven.
eta: Just saw that Calia posted about shrinky dinks. That's the same idea behind the #6 plastic. You can buy shrink plastic, too, which might work better. Wouldn't know. I tend not to buy things when I can use garbage to do the same thing.
you're welcome
I love Kanji-tag idea.That sounds great!
I'm still on the hunt for nice-looking bilingual tags available on this side of the Pacific. There could be a market for these, Heidi...
Anyway, back to Japanese names... could you phonetically spell a foreign name in hiragana, then find corresponding kanji and basically make up a Japanese name that sounded like the English (or other language) name? I don't know if this breaks all the rules of Japanese names or what, but I tried it with my name using jisho.org
So, take the name Heidi. So using hiragana, I would do ha-i-di : はいぢ
Some kanji words for はい (hai) are:
灰 - ash
佩 - ornamental bell
拝 - bowing one's head
杯 - sake cup
(there are more)
Or, I could do は (ha) and い (i) separately.
は (ha):
刃 - edge of a sword
歯 - tooth
葉 - leaf
翳 - fan
い (i):
位 - rank, decimal, counter for ghosts
医 - medicine, healing art, doctor
夷 - barbarian
威 - power, authority, majesty
猪 - boar
(and so on)
and the two kanji for ぢ (di) I found were:
道 and 路, both meaning road or pathway.
So, could I say my name was:
灰道 - ash road
佩路 - bell pathway
刃猪路 - blade boar path
葉医道 - leaf medicine road
歯威道 - tooth power path
(and so on)
and pronounce those more or less the same as Heidi?
So, I looked up some of those words...
Noble Character:
高風 (kanji)
こうふう (hiragana)
Koufoo (Romaji)
Exalted:
得意げ
とくいげ
Tokuige
Precious, valuable, noble, exalted, sacred:
尊い
たっとい
Tattoi
Noble, lofty, high-minded:
高邁
こうまい
Koumai
So, I would say that Heidi is written as 高風 in kanji (or one of the other ones). Or what?
That said, my own dogs have Chinese names that are considered quite unusual to most Chinese speakers, and most certainly don't exist as Japanese combos... in part because they DID come from a cobbled together approach. My boyfriend chose the first character, I chose the second. But I swear, there was an aesthetic logic behind our decisions to name our pets the "precious tummy" (Bowdu 寶肚) and "precious companion" (Bowpi 寶媲). Maybe because I know Bowpi's name, in particular, sounds and looks strange, I'm a bit sensitive to naming conventions.
The process can certainly get more complicated than just calling a dog "Blackie" or "Lucky" or "Spot" or just picking a name off a list!
I love that Bowdu's name means precious tummy! And Bowpi is just very cool.
Foreign names are written out using Katakana, not Hiragana or Kanji. For example, the word bread in Japanese is "pan" (portuguese) and it's written out as パン (katakana) not ぱん (hiragana) because it's a foreign word. My name for example would be written out セシリア (Seshiria/Cecilia), but never せしりあ (in hiragana).
McDonalds: マクドナルド (Makudonarudo), never: まくどなるど.
I guess for fun we could write our names out in Hiragana and Kanji, but it defeats the whole purpose of the Katakana writing system.
Also, since our names are not Japanese, I can imagine a Japanese person having a hard time picking out the correct sound of the Kanji to match our names...since each kanji can be pronounced a number of different ways.
So, sorry to comment again, but just to clarify, Heidi would be written out ハイヂ and pronounced "Ha-i-ji" (since there is no "dee" sound in Japanese).