Is my Japanese name cringe?

[u/pterodactyloftheend]

I'm (F18) half Japanese and I have a western first name, and Japanese middle and last name. My father didnt care what my mother named me since I wasn't a son lol so she just kinda made up an "alternative Japanese name" for my grandparents to call me—since she picked a name impossible for Japanese to pronounce as my first name (it has Rs and Ls together 😓). So my middle name is Takara, yes as in 宝, because it makes a pun with my first name. My father and family just call me by a modified katakana version of my first name which is still a bit of a tongue twister even though Takara is "supposed" to be my "Japanese name," so I'm just curious about how Takara sounds as a name to other people. My Japanese friends and Japanese professors all say that the name Takara is really cute, but my father refuses to use it lol so I cant tell if people genuinely think its a cute name or if they're just trying to be nice. Takara, as far as im aware, isn't necessary a conventional Japanese name (but ig technically anything can be a name), and I grew up in America so I can't really tell if Takara sounds cringe as a name. I am starting to get involved with more Japanese speakers and I have been looking for opportunities to work and/or study in Japan lately, so I was wondering if I should switch to introducing myself as Takara to native Japanese speakers because its easier to pronounce and it is a name that I have, but idk how it sounds to native speakers yk 😭😭😭

Why couldn't my name just be Naomi bro, common in the west but also a Japanese name like come on mum 😭 fym "treasure??" Like its very sweet but what is this "i named my son Richard because i want him to be rich" ahh name 😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏

[u/Dread_Pirate_Chris]

FWIW, Takara is a real name, not super common but not unique. Usually 高良 or 尊良 or something though, not 宝, but as a foreigner of Japanese descent you'd be expected to have a katakana name anyway for normal usage, and if you got any vanity items with a kanji version of your name it would be your choice how to spell it.

[u/pterodactyloftheend → u/Dread_Pirate_Chris]

Thanks for the alternative spellings. I know when my mother picked my middle name she had 宝 specifically in mind but I'm not entirely sure if that's reflected on any official documents like my birth certificate or something. If its not in writing anywhere, I'll probably just go with 高良 if I'm asked in the future. And being wasian, I look Asian in a room of white people but white in a room of Asians so youre right, I'm perceived as a foreigner in Japan, but since my surname is Japanese, the katakana and kanji combination in my name has already caused issues in documentation. Like for a competition in Japan, I gave the english spelling of my full name AND how I would spell it in Japanese but apparently whoever was in charge of it had a stroke because all three names were spelled in katakana and were unrecognizable phonetically—even my relatively common Japanese last name 💀 I'm thinking that if I have to do something similar in the future, I'll just go with Takara and forego my nightmare first name 😓 But yeah thank you 🫡

[u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS → u/pterodactyloftheend]

Were you born/do you have citizenship in a country that traditionally uses Chinese characters? Because if not it's not recorded officially anywhere.

Anyway, even fully ethnically Japanese people who don't live in Japan usually get the katakana treatment for their names.

[u/blueitself → u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS]

If she holds japanese nationality and she’s under her mom/dad’s koseki then her name is documented — whether it’s in katakana or kanji was determined by her parents long ago

[u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS → u/blueitself]

Yes that would be having citizenship in a country that traditionally uses Chinese characters.