[quote=sarasi;783251]No Japanese name is that short. The syllable "na" is a component of many women's names: Namie, Rina, Natsuko etc, but you will never see it by itself as a name.

Hi. I think so to.I'm a Japanese.
"na" is no Japanese neme. about Chinese or　Korean　neme


My name is Toshiaki. write by kanji="俊明"
"Toshiaki" is about no meaning to pronunciations.

toshi(俊) is my fathers mame. (My fathers name is Toshirou 俊郎)
and my parents wants the person to become a bright person.
bright in the Japanese　alario "明るい". 　俊+明= Toshiaki

はじめまして、私は日本人です。
英語が上手くないので日本語でも書き込みます。
日本語が分かる人がいたら補足で説明していただけると 助かります。

"na"は日本人の名前ではないと思います。

私の名前は"Toshiaki"です。漢字では"俊明"と書きます。
両親は父親の名前から俊""の文字をとり(父親は俊郎とい います)
明るく育つように"明"の字を合わせて"俊明"としました� �

名前は大切なので時間をかけてつけてあげるといいと思 います。

[quote=kiyosuke;783287]
First of all, you have a very nice name. It looks handsome in Kanji. In addition, I was impressed that Japanese people are quite traditional on name. You still inherit names from elder generations, which is great. :)

i was wondering,, for j-names, aren't there like 'nana' for a name? that also has na, but double na.
does that name have a form of writing, or a meaning??

"Nana" can be written in many ways.

なな、ナナ、奈々、菜々、奈菜、菜奈, etc.

So, it's different from how to write "John" or "Ruth" where you don't really have a choice.

^ i'm assuming they all mean differently since the writings are different... so how do you know if you're writing the right 'nana' word, does it have different tones or ways in saying it?

No, there are not different tones. Context, I supposed.

context? you mean like 'steven' and 'stephen' ?

Truth is you don't know which one until you ask the name's owner. The pronunciation is exactly the same. Unlike in Chinese, Japanese syllables don't have different tones.

This is why we (Japanese) often ask for the characters used in the other person's name when we introduce each other verbally.

Finally, contrary to what seems to be the belief among "Japan lovers", we don't talk about what our names mean very often. I've never quite understood why I'm asked that question everytime I meet someone from North America. I don't because I've never seen two Americans asking each other for the meaning of their names. Besides, it's not the Japanese name that has a meaning. It's the individual kanji used that has a meaning.

i see, that explains everything :D

one of my friend took a japanese class and he told me that japanese actually have two tones [?] if that is correct.
which i think isn't that much noticeable since it's only two. almost like speaking english, which doesn't have any tones. :)

Americans find it interesting because they know that each character has a "meaning". Whereas with English names, the entire name might have a meaning (or not) but they never mean something like "harmony" or "peace" or whatever other fancy thing people find cool. My name is Jesse. I have no idea if it means anything. At least with Kanji names you can break it apart and say that character X means Y etc. I can see why it would interest Japanese people much less ;)