Fictional Japanese Girl Seeks Appropriate Name!

[Th4RLdeal]

Hi, as you see in the topic, I’m trying to get an appropriate native Japanese name for my ‘lead’ character and I humbly BEG FOR YOUR HELP! Believe it or not, the internet hasn’t helped me much largely due to the fact that (living in the US) it is difficult for me to understand the “context” of most Japanese Girl names, even when I have their meaning. Thus help from persons who either are Japanese, or know Japan extremely well, would be greatly appreciated.

As this suggests I would like to get a name with genuine meaning that fits with the personality of my character; it is this that I am asking for you to please, please, (pretty please?) help me with.

Ultimately I would like to get a name for my protagonist that has a very… “Spunky” sound to it… but means something cute… maybe something to do with flowers? Let me show you a picture of her, and tell you a little about the character:



*Born in Japan (and apparently was there long enough to get a name), but orphaned and adopted in the United States by an American family. The nature of this adoption makes her age difficult to be certain of. (15? she acts older...)

*Growing up adopted in the US has left her largely alienated from her Japanese heritage, a fact that leads to humorous circumstances. She thinks her name means something "awesome" but it's actually something "cute or nice"

*As you may suspect from her appearance, she’s quite the Tomboy.

*She likes playing video games; particularly ones that involve killing zombies, being super heroes, or driving really fast and causing spectacular wrecks.

*She watches a lot of movies, and makes a lot of references to them.

*She also likes to draw, often when she should be studying. (She especially likes drawing comics.)

*She is only an average student because she is unfocused; intellectually she's quite clever.

*As capable as she is at acting in naïve innocence, she is just as capable of achieving bitter cynicism far beyond her years, but she’s actually a very good and often sweet girl, with a strong moral compass and a desire to make people’s lives better. She’s just misunderstood occasionally.

*She's a little like “Calvin” from “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strips, but a somewhat better behaved female/Japanese/teenage version of him.

NAMES I'VE CONSIDERED USING: (Maybe this will give you an idea of the... SORT of thing I'm looking for.)

*Ryoko: Perfect phonetically, but I didn't see any meanings that stood out.

*Yuzuki: I think I read that it means "gentle moon" (an appropriately inappropriate name.) it could work well, but the sound of the name doesn't really... grab me, though it's in the vein of what I'm looking for.

*Sakura: Seriously? There was a time I strongly considered using this, but it's just such an... obvious name... and it makes me think of Street Fighter.

*Yuri/Yuriko: Yuri makes me think "Russian"... :| sorry...

*Kikuko: It's a great name, but I don't feel that it sounds like her name... plus all those "K" sounds get my friends complaining to me...

*Azami: the website said it means "the flower of a thistle". Which is perfect. Perhaps too perfect. And I'd kind of like her name to begin with a consonant... maybe

Well that's all for now, If you have any questions you wish to ask, feel free to ask them!

[bELyVIS]

She looks like my friend TakaChan. She was a tomboy too, but when she dressed up like a woman WOW!

[Taranee987]

well the japanese names that came to me was Yori and Bara, Yori means Lily, means pure, gentle, and Bara means rose, which is also known as a passionate flower

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Taranee987

well the japanese names that came to me was Yori and Bara, Yori means Lily, means pure, gentle, and Bara means rose, which is also known as a passionate flower

It's Yuri, not Yori. You spelt that way that twice so it can't be a typo.

And since when is Bara a person's name?

I wish you stopped pretending to know so much Japanese on JF. You're even a romaji-user.

[Columbine]

Depends if you want a 'real' name or something more like a nom de plume. Like, the difference between naming your child 'Poppy' and naming them 'Daffodil'. The first is a real name, the second sounds like it logically should be, but is too off the cuff to actually be one.

I know 'Ran' is orchid,
'Sumire' is violet and a name(but could be a bit old fashioned), .but i think written differently
'Sakura' is an obvious one, but a bit cutsy for your character,
"Ayame" can mean Iris, and is also a place name and a given name, but i think they are all written differently.
If you want a kind of odd play on words, you could have "hachiko", but change it so that it's written 'bee child' rather than it's normal kanji. Actually, i think the normal version is 鉢 which can mean 'flowerpot.' :/ but don't take my word for it, i'm guessing mostly.

Hard to say; naming a character is a personal thing. Nothing i've suggested are really proper names, but maybe go look up some lists of names and have a think, there's plenty of websites.

[Th4RLdeal]

^^^Well, I've tried some of those websites and it's like trying to pick one grain of sand out of a sandbox. Perhaps I should mention some names I've actually thought about using? I'l add them to the topic post!

[Taranee987]

Originally Posted by masaegu

It's Yuri, not Yori. You spelt that way that twice so it can't be a typo.

And since when is Bara a person's name?

I wish you stopped pretending to know so much Japanese on JF. You're even a romaji-user.

^
oh really i'm pretending am i, and since when did using romaji become wrong? I'm just trying help and i think Bara would have been a nice name but since you seems to think i'm such an annoyance i might as well delete my account here, right then you would be happy right, oh and yes i was insulted by that comment

[Aniki]

How 'bout Asskikami. It's sounds cool.

[Tsuwabuki]

Yukiko. There are several variations of the kanji, although 雪子 and 有希子 are probably the most common. When is her birthday? That would matter. My students are often named in connection to the season of their birth.

[Th4RLdeal]

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

Yukiko. There are several variations of the kanji, although 雪子 and 有希子 are probably the most common. When is her birthday? That would matter. My students are often named in connection to the season of their birth.

Thank you for taking an interest in my dilemma!

Well I started thinking about it and realized that I only wanted her to be born in early spring or mid-to-late winter. And then I thought some more and realized that the "February-Early March" really is in a sense when her birthday is, because that's around the time I invented her. So... Mid to late winter, to be specific. (Err, I mean... More specific... or maybe just less non-specific.)

It was kind of a nice to have one of her "defining" details not fight me for a change.

And while I'm here...

Originally Posted by Aniki

How 'bout Asskikami. It's sounds cool.

To quote the Heath Ledger Joker: "Ha ha. he ho ha. And I thought... my jokes were bad."
But in all serious that actually is kinda' funny.