Howl's Moving Castle

Alex · 03-31-2006, 03:05 PM

I also think it is different in Japanese where the underlying meaning of a name is readily apparent to any literate person.

In English, "Alexander" means "defending men" only because there are scholars of dead languages to tell me so. Whereas in Japanese, Lani is reminded that "Akiko" (her first name) means "autumn child" every time she sees it written. Descriptive names are standard in Japanese whereas in the U.S. they are more a sign of hippie parents (we'd think nothing of it if you had a name that meant rainbow in 4th century Gaelic but actually naming a kid Rainbow is something different) and as with astrology finding meaning in things in Western culture I think the Japanese folklore assumption that your name has power to shape who you become is much stronger.

I wonder if a Japanese person find it lame when reading a translatin of Gibson and says "can you believe he named the main character Hiro Protagonist?"

03-31-2006, 03:05 PM	#1
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	I also think it is different in Japanese where the underlying meaning of a name is readily apparent to any literate person. In English, "Alexander" means "defending men" only because there are scholars of dead languages to tell me so. Whereas in Japanese, Lani is reminded that "Akiko" (her first name) means "autumn child" every time she sees it written. Descriptive names are standard in Japanese whereas in the U.S. they are more a sign of hippie parents (we'd think nothing of it if you had a name that meant rainbow in 4th century Gaelic but actually naming a kid Rainbow is something different) and as with astrology finding meaning in things in Western culture I think the Japanese folklore assumption that your name has power to shape who you become is much stronger. I wonder if a Japanese person find it lame when reading a translatin of Gibson and says "can you believe he named the main character Hiro Protagonist?"
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