Kanji Names?

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Elite Soba
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Kanji Names?

Post by Elite Soba »

I've just been wondering about the Kanji for certain peoples' names. I've been thinking about the names' meanings, and I'm wondering if these are appropriate. I'm not sure if this has been asked about yet, as I'm somewhat new to the community and haven't found anything on this.

Hanako - 離子
(離 is from 離れる - to be separated from; to leave; to go away; to be a long way off;
子 is from 子[供] - Child) Therefore, Hanako = Separated Child...
Shizune - 静ね
(静 is from 静か - quiet;
ね means nothing/adds emphasis) Therefore, Shizune = Quiet, isn't she?

Sorry to the people who don't understand; I'll try to explain, I guess. Kanji characters have certain readings, like 離 (Hana), and form words, such as 離れる (To be separated from). So, Hanako could be 離子, or separated child.
So... Can anyone help me come up with other Kanji names for the other characters? Sorry if people still don't understand or don't care, but I'm taking Fourth-Year Japanese right now, and this intrigues me. Also, sorry that the Kanji's a bit hard to read.
Juno
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Re: Kanji Names?

Post by Juno »

Dunno about the rest, but I think the hana in Hanako is the one meaning flower, as in 花子.
cc

Re: Kanji Names?

Post by cc »

iirc, Shizune's kanji means Quiet Noise. Or something quiet. I can't remember
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cpl_crud
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Re: Kanji Names?

Post by cpl_crud »

My Novel - Now available The Zemlya Conspiracy
Blog: http://cplcrud.WordPress.com

------
<Suriko> Crud would be patting Hanako's head
<Suriko> In a non-creepy fatherly way
<NicolArmarfi> crud is trying to dress hanako up like miku and attempting to get her to pose for him in headphones and he burns money
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G3n0c1de
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Re: Kanji Names?

Post by G3n0c1de »

cpl_crud wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katawa_Shoujo

Look harder.
Funny, I never saw those there before. Anyway, using google translate I came up with this.

池沢 華子 'Ikezawa Hanako'. The 華 'Hana' in Hanako meant 'Flower', or 'petal'. The 子 'Ko' was 'Child'. 'Flower Child' eh? that's a nice name.
池 'Ike' was 'Pond'. 沢 'Zawa' was weird, first off it translated to 'Sawa', and it could be a 1. swamp 2. marsh 3. valley 4. dale.
(Do note that I don't know how to translate Japanese at all) I'm not sure how it all fits together, but 'Flower Child of the Valley Pond' sounds nice. Though, surnames come first, so I'm not sure if it's correct.

羽加道 静音 'Hakamichi Shizune'. Having all of that in there it gave me 'Quiet street feather Canada'. Funny, since google translate recognized Hanako's name as a name, and gave me 'Ikezawa Hanako'. 静音 'Shizune' was interesting. Throwing just that into the translator, it spit out 'Quiet'. 静 'Shizu' by itself meant 'Static', and 音 'Ne' meant 'Sound'. I guess 'Static Sound' can be interpreted as 'Quiet'.
羽加道 'Hakamichi' was 'Additive way birds', confusing isn't it? But it appears that something to do with birds or feathers is still there... no more Canada though. 羽 'Ha' has to do with 'Wings' or 'Feathers'. 加 'Ka' is 'Canada', I shit you not. But it is also 'Addition', which I think would be... better. 道 'Michi' is 'Path', and could also be translated as street, road, OR a method, or way of doing something. So... how to put it together? 'Quiet Feathered Road' makes sense grammatically, but things might be out of order.

茨崎 笑美 'Ibarazaki Emi' Straight up, its 'Nagasaki笑美cusp', don't really get it. Her first name 笑美 'Emi' won't translate. 笑 'E' (.... that can't be right...) means...'!' an exclamation point. On the wiktionary, it says smile, laugh, giggle.. but still, I'm not sure. 美 'Mi' is beauty. Soooo 'Beauty!'? Or maybe 'Smiling Beauty' sounds better?
茨崎 'Ibarazaki' translates to 'Nagasaki cusp'... uh huh. 茨 'Ibara' means 'Cusp'... or 'Thorn'. Wiktionary has it 'Caltrops' so 'Thorn/Calrtops' might be it. 崎 'Zaki' give me 'Nagasaki' or 'Penninsula'. Wiktionary says 'promontory', or 'cape'. I'll stick with 'Penninsula'. And this is where 'cusp' might make a comeback. 'Smiling Beauty on the Cusp of the Penninsula'?

砂藤 リリ 'Satō Riri'. Note that リリ 'Riri' is the Japanese attempt to pronounce the English name 'Lilly', so I won't translate it.
砂藤 'Satō' is 'Fuji Sand'. 砂 'Sa' is by all accounts 'Sand'. 藤 'Tō' comes out as 'Fuji', but this appears to be incorrect. Wiktionary says that this character can be prounced as 'Fuji' or 'Tō', or even 'Dō'. So 'Fuji' is out. It might mean... 'Cane', the plant kind, or a specific kind of cane plant.

Looking at the Wiktionary, it seems that almost every character can be pronounced several ways, so perhaps some of these translations are wrong, as google translate doesn't elaborate on which pronunciation is being used. Hmm, Wiktionary talks about the "On'yomi" and "Kun'yomi" ways of pronouncing kanji. Basically "On'yomi" is pronouncing it the original Chinese way, and "Kun'yomi" is pronouncing with the original ancient Japanese word of that meaning. At this point, I don't even know if it makes a difference, It seems to me that the meaning remains the same, correct me if I'm wrong.

手塚 琳 'Tezuka Rin' just comes back as her own name. 琳 'Rin' Google translates to... 'Lydia'. Wiktionary says it could be 'Beautiful Jade' or 'Gem'.
手塚 'Tezuka' is just 'Tezuka'. 手 'Te' is 'Hand'. Oooooh, I like where this is going. 塚 'Zuka' Gtranslates to... 'Mound'? And several other geographic synonyms for 'Hill'. Wiktionary has it at 'Burial Mound' or 'Cemetary'. Even I can't put this one together, perhaps 'Hand' and 'Mound' have to do with the fact that she has stumps for arms? I don't know.

御門 椎名 'Mikado Shiina' otherwise known as ミーシャ 'Misha'. ミーシャ 'Misha' is just the Japanese attempt at pronouncing the Russian 'Misha'.
御門 椎名 'Mikado Shiina' is a bit strange 'Shiinamachi御門', based on the kanji thats left it didn't touch her surname. 椎名 'Shiina' comes back as 'Shiina'. 椎 'Shii' is 'Vertebra', or maybe 'Hammer'. 名 'Na' can be 'Guest' or 'Name'... maybe 'Famous'. Not sure but 'Famous Hammer' sounds funny.
御門 'Mikado' doesn't translate. 御... might be a mistake. Wiktionary doesn't have it pronounced as 'Mi', like it's supposed to be. It can be pronounced as 'gyo', 'go', 'on', or 'osameru'. Strange. 門 'Kado' means 'Gate'.

中井 久夫 'Nakai Hisao' translates to his name. 久夫 'Hisao' also comes back the same. Can't get a solid translation for 久 'Hisa'... Wiktionary has 'a long time ago', but it also doesn't have the exact pronunciation there too. So maybe 御門 'Mikado' is correct after all. 夫 'O' is 'Husband'. 'Husband from long ago' maybe?
中井 'Nakai' is just 'Nakai'. 中 'Naka' is 'Inside' or 'Middle'. 井 'I' is 'Well'. 'Husband from Long Ago inside a Well'?

武藤 昭夫 'Mutō Akio' comes back as his name. 昭夫 'Akio' stays the same. 昭 'Aki' appears to be a form of 'Akira'... maybe. It translates to 'Bright'. 夫 'O' is the same and in Hisao's name, and means 'Husband. 'Bright Husband' eh?
武藤 'Mutō' comes back the same. 武 'Mu' can be 'Military' or 'Warlike'. 藤 'Tō' is the same as Lilly's 藤 'Tō', so I don't know what to do with it. 'Bright Husband who is Warlike (-------) is the beginning of something cool.

白川 優子 'Shirakawa Yuuko' translates into... 'Shirakawa Masako'... Hmm. 優子 'Yuuko' does come back as 'Yuuko', however. 優 'Yuu' has a LOT of translations... 'Actor', 'Superior', the best letter grade (the equivelent of 'A'), 'Kind', 'Skillfully' to name a few. 子 'Ko' as also in Hanako, translates to 'Child'. Take your pick, 'Superior Child', 'Kind Child' ,'Actor Child'.
白川 'Shirakawa' comes back the same. 白 'Shira' is typically 'White' but can also be 'Innocence' or 'Purity'. 川 'Kawa' means river, or stream. 'White River' seems correct enough. 'Superior Child of the White River' perhaps?

And finally...
瀬藤 健二, or our beloved 'Setō Kenji' translates to 'Kenji Fujiyoshi rapids', ... hmm. 健二 'Kenji' is just 'Kenji'. 健 'Ken' came back as 'Ken', but can mean 'Health' or 'Strength'. 二 'Ji' is 'Two'. Maybe 'Twice' but that's a stretch, then again I can't put it together otherwise. 'Twice as Strong'?
瀬藤 'Setō' is 'Fuji Rapids'. It would seem that once again, Google Translate isn't using the right pronunciation. 瀬 'Se' is 'Rapids'. 藤 'Tō' once again is 'Fuji'... but not. See Lilly.

And that's all I got. If anyone has the Kanji for the other characters, like Hideaki or Akira, could you put them up? And these translations are probably a bit off, if anyone has something more accurate feel free to correct me.
It's a good thing Shizune is deaf, she is the only one who can stand (not) hearing "Wahaha~!" over and over.
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Aura
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Re: Kanji Names?

Post by Aura »

The japanese have a very screwed up system with names, which is convenient for us because it allows some bullshit to get past even the sharpest people. There is often no way of knowing how a person writes his/her name just from hearing it, which is partially why business cards are popular, and why people sometimes have to explain it on phone or whatever. As for KS, few of the character names in the game are "bad" in the sense that they are not existing, real names but made up by whoever came up with those two years back, and didn't have too good grasp of Japanese. Similarly, the above post is a huge mess due to the use of a translation program but yeah, the system itself is awful as well and many "meanings" of names don't really make much "sense".
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
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