Japanese name if no Japanese heritage

[SpacePie]

I love the gentle sound of many Japanese names.

What names could pass in the UK without raising eyebrows at the fact that neither myself or my husband are Japanese.

I must admit it's studio Ghibli that inspires this love, but many don't seem to be pronounced how they're spelled:

Satsuki
Sôsuke
Arietty
Kiki

I am fairly sensible and wouldn't want to land a baby with an impossible to spell / pronounce name so I'm all ears to England friendly suggestions.

I think you should stick to 2 syllables. For any more than that, the cultural variation in pronunciation will be too much (and quite bad sounding)

I would think "parent(s = weaboo".

Kimi is just a longer form of Kim

im not sure that works. Ive a friend called Kim. We call her Kimmie. Which I assume is the way yours is pronounced. A bit like Davey for Dave. Or Frankie for Frank. There is nothing Japanese sounding about it, 😃

I have a Japanese colleague named Ayako. I think it's a beautiful name!

@BellatrixLestrangesHeatedCurlers OK don't want to get too deep but it's often said the weaboo/koreaboo label is reflection of a racist thought process (NOT saying you're racist), accurately imo. There are often derogatory terms for those liking cultures traditionally seen (up until recently) as inferior. Whereas Francophile, Anglophile, etc are seen as fine, cultured even

Honestly, I think it's deeply cringe. It's the sort of thing I wanted to do when I was 15 and watched Naruto and thought Sakura was just the coolest.

Also as many people have pointed out, Arietty isn't even Japanese... So not only do you have no Japanese heritage, but you don't actually know all that much about Japan or Japanese naming either?

Yeah I wouldn't.

I agree with this.

I think it's naff, especially if the name is something like Emiri or is mispronounced

Naomi is the only one that works

I must admit it's studio Ghibli that inspires this love, but many don't seem to be pronounced how they're spelled and that's fine for a pet. Not for a child.

As others have said, Arrietty is from The Borrowers. Kiki is Jack's parrot from the Enid Blyton Adventure books. Both acceptable names but no direct Japanese links.

kiki in french means penis...

Hmm, I’m not sure.
How about something like Kiri? It’s a much more used name in the West, and I believe has Maori/New Zealand origins as well as having aJapanese meaning.

Good thing OP's not French then, so it isn't relevant at all!

I wouldn't say it's irrelevant. It's certainly the kind of info I'd want to know.

i think Hana means flower in Japanese- and it works for both cultures

Hector’s House was a French series and the character was also Kiki in the French version, and it didn’t seem to worry them too much then.

Come on, everything means something in some other language. Pippa means sex/to fuck in Italian and Greek and Swedish. Etc

Kiki is a shortened form of the Greek name Kyriaki.

Hector's House was recorded in the 1960s, and slang might have changed since then.

You're conditioned to think that because it's become mainstream.

Zizi not kiki

It's cultural appropriation . Just don't

Japanese, Chinese and Korean names have significant meaning (I know other countries do too but these are the cultures and languages spoken by my family) and different kanji / hanzi depending on the chosen meaning

Naming a child in these cultures is very significant as you are often imparting family heritage, tradition, wishes for the future etc. It is so important some parents even turn temples or traditional wise people (don't know the correct English term so hope that makes sense)

To give your child a name with so little knowledge of the meaning behind it other than the google translation would be minimising an important aspect of Asian culture

Also I wouldn't be able to stop myself cringing over it

Look up the term 'weebo' as that is the first thing that would cross my mind

Exactly! And that's why I'd never in a million years be persuaded to call a daughter Pippa.

Westerners think perfectly normal names from my Asian culture are hilarious - jokes about Ho Lee Fuk etc were especially common when racism was socially acceptable - but aren't aware that lots of English names are equally crass and hilarious homophones in East Asian languages... So I'm personally not fussed, especially about slang, maybe unless it literally means the dictionary definition of something