what does this say?
 

たかちやん

anyone know?

so is Taka-chan like a name or what?

bumpy bumpy....

Yes.

。。。。。。。。。。。。。

A nickname.

It's like calling Nicholas or Nichola "Nicky" Samuel or Samantha "Sam" etc...

By the way MMM... what is the rule for chan compared with kun?

Whee, even I can answer this.

Chan and Kun are casual, but, chan is usually used for girls and kun for boys. You can use chan with boys and kun with girls, but generally, it's the way I mentioned. They're also used towards boys and girls who are younger than you, but as I said earlier, both of these honorifics are casual. For example, that "Taka-chan" is probably used by someone who is a friend of this "Taka-chan".

Aah.. thanks SSJup81 :)

I realised that they were both casual but was unsure as to how liberally you could use them.

Also, "kun" is used for subordinates at a company. In this case women can also be addressed or referred to as "kun."

I would also imagine that using hiragana instead of kanji in writing also is suggesting a bit of informality.

You can use chan for boys, but only for close friends and family or little kids. But I would never use kun for girls, have never heard it used for girls and was told it was only for boys.

I have, like a senior to someone younger. Like maybe a boss to a lower employee or something like that. I'm not sure if it's very common, but can be done.

If you watch Japanese dramas or work in an office you can hear bosses call female employees with ~kun.

I'm surprised, but I'll accept that.

Especially older bosses, and it isn't very common, but ~kun isn't exclusive to boys.