Japanese Nicknames and Middle Names

[YoshimiTheEthereal]

I have a few of questions I am curious about.

1.) Do people in Japan have middle names?

2.) How are nicknames created?

3.) What does "kichi" mean added onto a name? Like if someone is named "Teru" and he is called "Terukichi"?

Thank you!

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by YoshimiTheEthereal

I have a few of questions I am curious about.

1.) Do people in Japan have middle names?

2.) How are nicknames created?

3.) What does "kichi" mean added onto a name? Like if someone is named "Teru" and he is called "Terukichi"?

1) Nope. Ignore those who tell you otherwise.

2) In many ways.

A. Take one part of a person's either first or last name.
B. Add "chan" or "kun" to A.
C. Add a random sound to A, such as "pii", "chin", "ppe", "maru", etc.
D. Kids like to create nicknames from others' physical characteristics (fat, skinny, tall, curly hair, red hair, etc). Teachers try to stop this in school but they do it anyway.

There are many other ways. One of my classmates back in high school was nicknamed "Denver" just because she liked John Denver. Another one (a boy) was nicknamed "Umeji" completely out of the blue.

3) This is hard to explain because, as a non-native speaker, you wouldn't know how "kichi" sounded to the Japanese ear. The original "kichi" is the kanji 吉, meaning "good" or "good luck" and it was part of many masculine names a long time ago.

Now, very few boys are named with that character. But people still like the sound very much, so they sometimes create nicknames by adding "kichi" to a part of a first name. I say "a part of it" because it ends up too long a name if you add "kichi" to someon'e full first name which usually has 3-4 syllables already.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by YoshimiTheEthereal

I have a few of questions I am curious about.

1.) Do people in Japan have middle names?

2.) How are nicknames created?

3.) What does "kichi" mean added onto a name? Like if someone is named "Teru" and he is called "Terukichi"?

Thank you!

1) no
2) various ways, it's hard to state a single, short rule because there are multiple ways—can you tell me how nicknames in English are made? John->Jimmy? William->Billy? For example, I had a good friend in Japan named ふみや and one of the first days I met him we were making some gangster jokes or something and I called him ふみやろう in front of our entire tennis team and the nickname stuck. Probably was just the humor of a foreigner calling him やろう, though...
3) 吉: Edit Nagoyankee explains it better than I.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

C. Add a random sound to A, such as "pii", "chin", "ppe", "maru", etc.

Oh God, that is so true! Haha. I have two friends in Japan named Ayana and Kanako. On Mixi, their names are アヤナピョン and かなピョン. I always thought it'd be better for me since my name is so close to カエル and ピョン reminds me of ピョコピョコ.

[siokan]

1)There is not the middle name
2)From a name and a family name, an appearance or a habit
quite suitable
3)"~~~kichi" is the one on the side of an old name in the back.
To soften the nuance, it puts it.
"kichi" "suke" "zaemon"etc....

It is difficult to explain an actual usage.......

[YoshimiTheEthereal]

Thanks to all of you very much! You were very helpful!

[jesselt]

I have a question related to this...

Is there any Japanese equivalent to a person's initials?

[sarasi]

No. When Japanese people want to initialise names, they use Romaji, e.g. Tanaka Akiko = T. A.

Some Japanese names only have one kanji (my husband's given name does), so there's no reason or way to shorten them any more.

[Kyedhen]

I have a similar question, so I guess I ought to post it here
Where would the nickname 'Shuu' (愁) come from?

[siokan]

Originally Posted by Kyedhen

I have a similar question, so I guess I ought to post it here
Where would the nickname 'Shuu' (愁) come from?

The real name is "愁~"? 愁一,愁人
愁=Sorrow?
There are very few people to employ for a name because it is the kanji that is not good.