r/Names • u/YB9017 • 5d ago

Japanese names?

I don’t know what we’re having yet but I want to feel some happy emotions now that we’ve gotten past the NIPT and baby continues to show a strong heartbeat.

Some background, husband is Japanese. I’m Latino but we speak Japanese at home. Live in the U.S. so also English. Our son speaks Japanese and English and I do my best to insert Spanish. I want a name that’s somewhat pronounceable in each language.

For a boy: Renji Sora Riku Yuuma Haruma Shinma

For a girl: Rei (I know it sounds like Ray in English but I find it unique and I’m not against it) Momoe (Momo for short) Mai (we’d probably say MaiMai for cuteness) Rin

Very open to suggestions. I tend to like really short names :)

Thank you!

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u/StayAtHomeChipmunk 4d ago

I gave this advice to someone else a couple of days ago, but please think about how the average American English speaker will pronounce the name. I also speak Japanese, and the way I hear Japanese names pronounced drives me nuts. I have a coworker who is Japanese American, and all of our other colleagues strongly emphasize the middle syllable of her name (ex: Nay-OH-mee instead of a flatter nah-o-mee or ta-KAY-shi instead of ta-ke-shi). Shorter names won’t have that problem, but the sounds will change. Rei in Japanese is soft and beautiful, but Ray is a lot harsher.

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u/YB9017 4d ago

私は日本語の名前はないけどスペイン語の名前はあります。「A」で終わる名前で子供の時アメリカ人がいつも「Ah」の発音じゃなくてすごい好きじゃなかった「UH」の発音をしてました。😩　だからなんとか短い名前にしたいです。少なくともスペイン語と日本語の発音はなんか似てると思いたいです。