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Tips for giving and writing a Japanese name for your UTAU

Disclaimers

- I am NOT a Japanese teacher nor in 100% native level at Japanese even I have some Japanese background but I know enough Japanese to give some (basic) naming/writing tips for a character.

- If you've done any of these "mistakes" what I list here, please, don't take it personally!

This guide is mainly made to help newcomers!

- That you have made any of this "mistakes" listed here do NOT mean that you should change your UTAU's name! Remember that this is just a "guideline", you do not need to follow all the rules at the end - it's up to you after all!



At First

I recommend to read @Cdra 's Designing UTAU Characters: DOs and DON'Ts Tutorial before reading mine. Cdra gives some good advises for naming - and character development in general.



What are Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji and how/when to use them?

Hiragana and Katakana are basic character for Japanese. One Hiragana or Katakana character is a syllable.

Hiragana is used for Japanese names (e.g Sakura, Shinnosuke) and words that are original Japanese.

Katakana is used for Foreign names (=names that are NOT Japanese e.g James, Cecilia), loan words and for writing onomatopoeia*.

*Onomatopoeia is for example cat crying "nyaa nyaa", lock ticking "chiku taku chiku taku" or heart pumping for excitement "doki doki" etc.

Kanji, in other hand, are "symbols". Kanji came originally about 2000 years ago from China (back in time Japanese didn't have own writing system, so they borrowed Chinese Character).

Today's Japanese, Kanji are still used: names and most of the nouns, adjectives, verbs etc has own Kanji. Most of Kanji has multiple reading in Japanese: on'yomi (音読み) and kunyomi (訓読み)

on'yomi (音読み/おんよみ): Reading that is "borrowed" from Chinese.

kunyomi (訓読み/くんよみ): Reading that Japanese themselves has invented.

In Japanese, there are rules when kanji is read as on-yomi or kunyomi but I won't explain them cuz with names you don't need to follow this rules.

It's good to know that because of this "reading freedom" with names, 赤音 can be read any of this way:


On-yomi: セキ/seki, シャク/shaku
Kunyomi: あか/aka
Meaning: red


Onyomi: オン/on
Kunyomi: おと/oto, ね/ne
Meaning: sound

赤音 - Akaoto
赤音 - Akane
赤音 - Akaon
赤音 - Shakuoto
赤音 - Shakune
赤音 - Shakuon
赤音 - Sekioto ...and so on

BTW, if you write "xx meaning" or "xx reading" in Google, you can quickly find reading/meaning for any Kanji.

Normally (in Web and Book Kanji dictionary) Onyomi is written in Katakana and Kunyomi in Hiragana like this Screen Shot 2017-02-01 at 10.42.49.png (screenshot is from this site)




Tips

- This should be quite obvious but first at all: don't give a name that means somethings really offensive or negative (in any language). If you UTAU is not a "jokeloid", don't give a name that means something really ridiculous and/or funny. People won't take your UTAU seriously if it has a funny name.

- Use always your common sense! If the name means something very cringy, awkward and/or embarrassing if YOUR mother language, it'll 99.9% surely also sound cringy, awkward and/or embarrassing in Japanese too.

- Look up always that Kanji that are you using does NOT mean anything very bad/offensive!

- BE CAREFUL OF POSSIBLE BAD HOMOPHONES! Make sure that when the character's name is read a LOUD, it can't sound anything bad. For example, 子音 means "child sound" BUT it can be read as "shine" which sounds same than 死ね/shine="die already!". I don't want to scare people but to be honest, Japanese a language that is full of homophones - so you should be careful! If you're unsure, always ask!

- Don't trust blindly Google Translate! In fact, you should never ever use Google Translate to name your characters in Japanese! Please, use "baby name" sites and other online/kanji dictionaries as your Japanese source instead!

- Don't mix Japanese and no-Japanese writing system together! For this, I mean that you don't write name like this: 音符音Александр

It looks very weird and most of the people have no idea how to write/read the name at first place.
Write no-Japanese names ALWAYS in KATAKANA no matter what*!

*with Chinese names, you can change Hanji to closest Japanese Kanji (e.g. Chinese "horse" 马 => Japanese "horse" 馬.). But obviously READING changes DRAMATICALLY! For example, 夏霜 (which is BTW a name of a Chinese UTAU) is read as "Natsushimo" in Japanese but in Chinese her name is read as "Xia Shuang".

If you don't want that your Chinese name pronunciation change
(and possibly meaning at the same time), write Chinese name also in Katakana! Also, remember always that Chinese writhing system Hanzi (simplified or traditional) are NOT equal to Japanese Kanji!

" 音符音Александр " Not ok...
" 音符音アレクサンダー " Great!


- Write name in this format: last name first, then a given name (e.g Hatsune Miku, NOT Miku Hatsune). In Japanese last name is always first!

- Write a "reading guide" for a name in parentheses next to name IF name has ANY Kanji marks in the name (if the whole name is Hiragana and/or Katakana only then you don't need to do this). This is because in names "on-yomi/kunyomi" rules doesn't apply! (Aka. On-yomi and Kunyomi can be mixed in Japanese kanji names).

With names that are "made" (no real live names), even native Japanese don't know for sure how to read character's name if not giving a reading. That's why there always reads 重音テト(かさねてと) in every single Kasane Teto VB's character.txt. If the reading guide is not written, a Japanese who has never heard about Teto thinks automatically that 重音 is read as "Juu-on" or "Omone" - not as "Kasane".

- AVOID using words' "dictionary form", especially with colors and adjectives!

- NEVER use verbs as a name! (e.g. "to run" "to talk" etc) Please, don't... verbs do not look/sound a name.


- Using nouns as names are generally ok

- Adjectives (e.g. "beautiful/美しい" "strong/強い" "yellow/黄い" etc) don't usually work alone as a proper name: combine an adjective with a noun (e.g. "beautiful flower/美花" "strong wind/強風" "yellow bear/黄熊").

I also advise with adjectives that you take any hiragana after kanji away (e.g. 美 would be fine as a fictional name or a part of the name but 美しい is WEIRD, looks like taken from directly from a dictionary).

With colors ("red", "blue", "yellow" etc), don't use the form that has い at the end. 赤/aka would be OK as a name but 赤い/akai is not.

- Using real family and first names are always the safest way to create a name. If you use real names, you can be 100% sure that character's name won't mean anything bad and/or sound weird.

- I personally advise to not use ゐ/ヰ or ゑ/ヱ! And absolutely do NOT use を/ヲ in names!!!!

を/ヲ (pronounced as "o" but in romaji often written as "wo"). を/ヲ is for sentences' grammar purposes. I cannot explain this meaning in English but it's grammatically a particle, this is why you should not use を/ヲ in names.

"But what if my character's name has sound "wo"????"

Good question! To write sound "wo", write うぉ/ウォ. Yes, うぉ/ウォ is read as "wo", this one is completely OK to use.

About ゐ/ヰ and ゑ/ヱ:

This Hiragana/Katakana characters are no longer used in modern Japanese language, so it's better to not use. (ゐ/ヰ is read as "い/i" but in romaji you can see this written as "wi". ゑ/ヱ is read as "え/e" but in romaji you can see this written as "we".)

In modern, nowadays, Japanese writes "wi" sound as うぃ/ウィand "we" sound as うぇ/ウェ - use this instead!

- Don't "mix" hiragana/katakana/kanji in a sure name. I mean for this that you don't give a last name that looks something like this when written Japanese (in this last name example there are two hiragana characters between two kanji): 明るい音 (akarui oto). Sorry for saying this but it looks like a Google Translate, it does NOT look like a name at all! If you write Kanji surname, ALL marks must be Kanji in sure name to look like a proper name (and if Surname is foreign then written WHOLE surname in Katakana).

明音 as the last name would look OK but 明るい音 looks not as good.

Japanese last names are normally written in Kanji while foreign in Katakana.

- With given names: If a name is JAPANESE, write in Hiragana* or Kanji. Kanji gives more "cool" feeling for the name, Katakana given "hard" feeling and Hiragana give more "soft" and "cute" feeling for the name (some Japanese female given names are written officially in Hiragana because of that).

*With fictional characters
(and with some super OLD JP names) Katakana is OK too and it's common in general that fictional character's first name is written in Katakana.

With given names, I also advise avoiding mixing hiragana/katakana/kanji together too (unless you're at native level). The only safe mixing what I know so far are adding Suffix 子/ko (means "child", for female names) or Suffix 太郎/tarou (for male names, IDK Eng meaning) at end of given name.

For example "Sumiko" written as すみ子 or スミ子 would be OK.



More writing tips

Ok, so you have a name (family + given). If the name is kanji+kanji e.g. 野原京太郎/Nohara Koutarou, you might want a put a space (from western keyboard) to separate family and given name each other for clarity like this 野原 京太郎, but that's optional.

If the name is kanji+hiragana or kanji+katakana (e.g 重音テト/Kasane Teto or 兎眠りおん/Tone Rion), you don't need put a space between family and given name because it's obvious where's "a line" between this two. Same goes with names that are hiragana+katakana OR katakana+hiragana (Katakana and Hiragana look different).

If the name is hiragana+hiragana, it's good to have a space between them but is optional.

If the name is katakana+katakana, use・mark to separate. e.g プチ・イヴェテゥ (・mark is only used for foreign names to separate first/last name each other. This is not used with hiragana or kanji, katakana only!)

"I downloaded a random Japanese VB without English readme.txt plus I cannot read Kanji and I have no idea how to read this Japanese UTAU's name and IDK it in Romaji"

When you go to that Character's website/readme.txt/character.txt/demo reel, you can usually find this word 名前 /namae (namae means "a name" in English), next find this word 読み/yomi (means "to read"). "yomi/to read" section is a "reading guide" for full name, usually written in Hiragana (or in some rare cases, written in Katakana). You can read there how to read/pronounce that character's name.

It's often in this format in readme.txt/character.txt:


1. 名前: ______ (読み: ______)

2. 名前: ______ (______)

3.

名前: ______
読み: ______

etc

If there's no "yomi" info anywhere (Wiki, homepage nor readme), then try to ask someone who reads Japanese tell how to read that characters name or ask directly from UTAU's author.



Some helpful websites

English sites

For Kanji: http://jisho.org

For naming (given name): https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese
http://www.20000-names.com/female_japanese_names.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Japanese_given_names

For naming (surname): https://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/japanese

Japanese sites

赤ちゃん命名ガイド(Japanese baby name site, given names)https://b-name.jp

漢字辞典オンライン(Kanji dictionary online)http://kanji.jitenon.jp

Other helpful articles for UTAU naming

UTAUloid Naming And Profiling (from Old UTAU Wiki):
http://utau.wikia.com/wiki/UTAU_wiki:UTAUloid_Naming_And_Profiling

Designing UTAU Characters: DOs and DON'Ts by Cdra:
http://utaforum.net/threads/designing-utau-characters-dos-and-donts.11853/

Lastly

If I missed/should add something in this "guide", let me know! I hope that this was helpful for some people!

If you have a question that is like "is xxx name OK as name or not" or "does this name look right as written", you can always ask me (or anyone else who knows Japanese). If too shy ask in public, you can always send me a personal message.

And if you know any other good websites for Kanji and/or Japanese names, please let me know!

Thank you for reading!
Author
Nohkara
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I learned so much from this and it is so helpful that you provided links thanks a lot for making this
Finally someone showing how things are xD That's really cool. BTW mah new utsu is Kireina Merurusa, written in Hiragana. Is that OK, Pupu-san? :D
Nohkara
Nohkara
Kireina/綺麗な is an adjective meaning "beautiful" but I think that as that it doesn't work as a good name because "kireina" is a "dictionary form" of that word. Removing hiragana na/な from end would look better when written as Japanese (obiously reading change to "Kirei") or giving totally different name.

美 means also beauty (read as "mi" and "bi"). Combinationg it with a noun that is in Kanji (e.g. "flower" "tree" "cat" etc) makes it look a very nice sure name.

Adjectives as alone super rarely works as alone, so I recommend to combine an adjective with a noun. Verbs will not work as name.

Ps. Given name is fine, I recommend write that as katakana