Japanese names that are good in English

[MamaJapan]

Good morning,

I am 32 weeks pregnant with my first baby, we do not know if it is a boy or a girl. My husband and I are Japanese and living in Japan but in June we move to England for my husbands job. We will live there for 2 years to begin with and then my husband can renew his contract every one year.

We wish to name our child a Japanese name that is good in English.

Can you tell me if these names are good and easy to pronounce or any problems you think there might be.

Girls:

Koharu
Haruka
Sakura
Ayaka
Misaki
Fuka
Natsuki
Ichika

Boys:
Haruto
Haruki
Riku
Takumi
Shota
Tatsuki
Itsuki

Please accept my gratitude in advance

I have taught a great number of Japanese students in an English speaking international school.

I have always loved the name Ayaka for a girl - and have taught some lovely Ayakas in the past and present. Same goes for Misaki.

For the boys I have never taught any from your list but I do like Haruki very much.

Do you pronounce the A at the beginning of a name as an I ? So Ayaka would be said Eyeyaka?

@ivykaty44 A sounds something like "ah".

I have two Japanese-Scottish children. Names that work in both easily are

Mari

Eimi - Amy
Emiri
Arisu
Ana
An
Maya
Mei
Naomi - although English becomes Naiomi

Riku - a lot of American friends went with this.
Ken-names: Kenta, Kento
Gen - my son has a variation of this, ending in Gen.
Hiro - sounds so cool!

I notice a lot of Haru in the names you have. I think that's pretty safe; Koharu, Haruka, Haruto etc.

The UK is quite multicultural and friends moved to London with kids with much more traditional Japanese names and have been fine. Definitely avoid Fuka, or my husband's suggestion of Yusaku - sounds like "you suck". Similarly -suke endings have proven difficult - Nakamura Shunsuke played in Scotland and I've yet to hear it pronounced correctly.

Congratulations!
Would you be able to put how they are correctly said, so we can see if it is the same way we would naturally say it when reading it? This might help your decision.

My favourites are these:

Sakura
Ayaka
Natsuki

Haruto
Haruki
Riku

True about the -suke endings. I think that it's because karaoke is such a mispronounced word that the e in the end is assumed to be ee or a silent e like in English.

A is Ah like in apple

Ah-ya-kah with equal emphasis on each syllable.

I love Maiko for a girl

Definitely avoid the following;

Fuka
Ichika
Shota
Itsuki

Other than that they all work well!

I like Sakura, just sounds like an unusual name, easy to pronounce and pretty.

I also like riku.

This could start a new name trend some of them are lovely.

Not Fuka though!!

Boys: Love Shota. Also Haruki and Takumi. (Tatsuki may be mistaken for a well-liked dil tatsiki!l

Girls: Koharu and Natsuki lovely

@haudyer is Shunsuke just shun-s'keh? I don't know how to write that, but just with the quick middle syllable and the half-AY-half-EH last bit? That's how I always pronounce those kind of names/words, like Daisuke, Sasuke etc - DAee-s'keh, SAs'ke etc. Obviously I am terrible at writing out English phonetics

I think that's a pretty important thing to note for OP in general actually - in English we tend to default to emphasising the middle syllable in a 3 letter word, for example Sakura might be mispronounced as saKOOra in England quite often, Azumi could become A-ZU-me, etc. In London where people are a bit more multicultural in general (as in they're used to asking people to clarify their names since so many people aren't from England) it should be fine though shouldn't it?

Sakura is lovely and I like Shota and Haruto too. Don't choose Yuki, Miyuki etc, it would be read as "Yucky"

I know a little half-Japanese girl called Yuka - it’s pretty easy for English people to pronounce!