Boys often use "信" and "武", while girls often use "京" and "佳"
On September 6, Japan's imperial family welcomed a child for the first time in 41 years. After a child is born, the first thing most people do is to pick up a name. In Japan, ordinary newborns are named within two weeks of birth, while the royal family is named on the seventh day after birth. It is said that this custom is related to the high death rate of newborns after birth in ancient times. Chinese characters account for a large proportion of Japanese names. In order to make the name have a good meaning, parents have to think carefully, and it is not excessive to spend two weeks.
When choosing a name, you need to "pass five levels and kill six generals"
There are cumbersome rules for ordinary Japanese people to choose names when they are born. Traditionally, Japanese names generally use Chinese characters, but after World War II, some relatively trendy people began to use the Japanese pronunciation of commonly used English names in Europe and America as their own names.
To name someone with Chinese characters, in Japan you have to "pass five levels and kill six generals." The so-called Wuguan means that the child's name must conform to the "Five Patterns", that is, the general pattern - indicating good luck in life; personality - reflecting the expected character talents and requiring the ability to restrain bad luck; and the geographical pattern - conforming to the health requirements The pursuit of safety, peace, etc.; Tiange - must not conflict with the fate of ancestors; Outer Ge - harmony with the external environment. "Six Generals" are a number of auxiliary rules. For example, certain Chinese characters cannot be used in names for various reasons, such as Ling, Yi, Xi, etc. In recent years, the increase in foreign exchanges has given some traditional auspicious names in Japan an unlucky meaning. For example, "Yongda" was originally a very powerful name, but its pronunciation makes it sound like "You Die" to English-speaking countries. ), as a result, naming has become a complicated task for Japanese people.
Educated Japanese people will look for words from the Four Books and Five Classics, while ordinary people will look for words from the "Man'yoshu" (Japan's ancient Book of Poetry). Generally speaking, common names for boys include Wu, Xin, Yan, Nan, Fu, Bao, etc. Girls include Ai, Jia, Jing, Jing, etc., followed by "子". Boy's names "武夫" and "武男" have a feeling of bravery. The family hopes that their children can live like a samurai, with faith and a sense of responsibility. Words such as "faith" and "guarantee" attach more importance to concepts and let children have integrity.
If you attach great importance to your daughter's morality, you will name her "Nobuko". "Jing" means promising, and is often used to describe beautiful scenery. It is a word reserved for girls.
The most popular names are announced every year
Of course, some people are not willing to follow the cumbersome rules for naming, but they have to be lucky enough. Because the government agencies responsible for registering household registration in Japan have specialized personnel, they review the names of newborns based on the "List of Wrong Words, Common Words and Orthographic Words Used in Household Registration Records" promulgated by the Civil Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Justice. Those who use the wrong word and are refused registration will not Not a few. It is said that by avoiding the use of uncommon Chinese characters in names, the computer system for household registration management has been greatly simplified.
For ordinary Japanese, naming their children is a bit difficult. Who knows what might happen if you are not careful. Therefore, many Japanese leave their problems to "experts" to solve. There are many companies in Japan that specialize in naming children, and the fees range from a few thousand yen to hundreds of thousands of yen.
Some large companies have recently published a list of the most "popular" names online every year, and some people can randomly choose one from here for their children. As a result, more than 40 of the new names used by Japanese people every year are from the top 100 "popular" names, resulting in many duplicate names. What’s interesting is that the changes in the value orientation of Japanese society can be seen from these top-ranked names. A few decades ago, most of the popular names in Japan were “Keiichi”, “Sachiko”, etc., which emphasized stability, fairness, and peace. In 2005, The number one female name is actually "Hina", followed by "Nanako", "Ayaka", "Yai" and other relaxing names. From this point of view, the Japanese are slowly becoming less "serious".
The naming of emperors and princes is more particular than that of ordinary people, and there are full-time consultants to solve this matter.
The prince who may become the emperor is required to be named with the character "nin". This tradition originated from the 56th Emperor Seiwa (Yi Ren), and thereafter, such as Chihihito (Emperor Goreizumi) and Huairi (Emperor Ichijo), with a few exceptions. Most of them follow the example. The reason is that Japan has been influenced by Confucianism for a long time, and "benevolence" is regarded as the greatest virtue in classics.
Place names also have Chinese meanings
In Japanese writing, Chinese characters account for about 70%. Many Chinese characters have the same meaning in Chinese and Japanese, but some have changed their meanings in China, while in Japan they still maintain their original meanings in ancient Chinese. For example, "walk" means "run" in Japanese, which is the same as ancient Chinese. "Huang" means big, and it is also an ancient Chinese category.
Many place names in Japan are also influenced by Chinese characters. For example, "Tokyo" means a big city in the east, and later it came to mean the capital. "Sendai" was a sparsely populated place in ancient times. From there you could climb to the sky, which is fascinating.
Japan has held a public voting event for "Kanji of the Year" since 1995. Each year the public votes to select a Chinese character that reflects the social conditions of that year. The word "love" received the most votes in 2005. According to the usual practice, Mori Kiyonori, the abbot of Kiyomizu Temple in Higashiyama District, Kyoto, Japan, who is proficient in Chinese calligraphy, wrote a large word "love" on a huge piece of Japanese paper 1.5 meters long and 1.3 meters wide in the temple. Some people chose "love" because the little princess Aiko became the focus of media reports that year. And some people are obsessed with "Ai Fukuhara", a Japanese female table tennis player who can speak standard Chinese. The "Chinese Character of the Year" in 2004 was "disaster" and in 2003 it was "tiger". ▲