Just curious what y'all think about the treacherous territory that is baby names in an intercultural relationship.
Ironically, as an American, I prefer to give our son a Japanese name. My wife, prefers western names. It is likely that we will live most of our lives in the U.S. and my position is that I want him to remain connected to his Japanese roots (in a concrete way). My wife wants him to be able to fit in.
Any thoughts? I'm especially looking to hear from those of you in mixed marriages. or of mixed parentage. Please indicate whether you live in Japan or abroad and if this factored into your decision.
Thanks!
Ironically, as an American, I prefer to give our son a Japanese name. My wife, prefers western names. It is likely that we will live most of our lives in the U.S. and my position is that I want him to remain connected to his Japanese roots (in a concrete way). My wife wants him to be able to fit in.
Any thoughts? I'm especially looking to hear from those of you in mixed marriages. or of mixed parentage. Please indicate whether you live in Japan or abroad and if this factored into your decision.
Thanks!
Easy!
ReplyDeleteAt first we had a nickname for my daughter while she was in the womb.........Uniko. Realizing that she would be the brunt of many jokes if growing up in Japan we decided to rename her. We suffered the same irony as you have mentioned above and settled on a western name that is easy to pronounce in both languages..........so Nina it was!
We plan on staying in the U.S. for good but you never know. Couldnt see her managing with the name Uniko if we decided to uproot.
We're not a mixed couple, but two South Africans who have a daughter born here in Japan. Like you, we wanted her to carry some of Japan with her, because although she isn't Japanese, this is the place of her birth. My husband is also Catholic so there was a lot of pressure from the in-laws to give her a saint's name or something of the sort. Eventually we decided on Maria 真理愛. Her name is registered in kanji on her birth certificate, and we use the kanji in Japan for all her documents, but obviously on her passport it is in romanji. This way, she can always write her name in "Japanese" and carry it with her to remember her birth place. If we have a boy, we will probably do the same thing and call him Kai 海.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Brit, the wife is Japanese. We thought we would live most of our lives in the UK, but have found ourselves back in Japan (for good?) so we chose English first names and Japanese middle names. But the kids prefer their English names and are known by their English names with a -chan added on the end by their classmates.
ReplyDeleteChoose names that are meaningful to you and don't worry about fitting in - you will or you won't no matter what your name is - would be my advice.
Thank you for your input! We ended up naming him with a Japanese first name and western middle name. Thanks again!
ReplyDelete