Knowing Thy Name…and Middle Name?

Alrighty, I’ve wanted to just put down this odd little thought that I had stuck in my brain for a while. It’s about something that is stuck with you for your entire life, it’s something that is tied with each person’s identities, it’s what we use to address people. Yup, I want to bring up the topic of names, specifically people’s names. I’ve always found people’s and character’s names fascinating. The name is imbued into the person’s character in a way. I’m not saying that certain names have this kind of “pre destined” power over people who haven’t existed yet, but it’s still interesting how we use names to convey these kinds of ideals. Like looking at the roots of names, there are little nuggets of information and meaning behind all sorts of names throughout history. There are reasons why certain names have a certain “feel” to them, and that they bear some sort of significance. I bet when parents have to come up with names, it can be a pretty tough process to come up with something that they like, but knowing that will be part of their child’s identity for the rest of their life. You can change your name too, but you still had to change the original name, so it still holds some ground.

Let’s take middle names for example, which seems to be more of a Western thing I believe. I find them pretty fascinating. It’s like a “hidden” meaning behind the person you know. I don’t know why, in my head, I wonder what middle names people have. It could be just another name, like a first name put in the middle. It could reveal a sort of ethnic identifier with the person, passed down by the parents. Okay, I think my middle name is pretty neat because, since I’m Hawaiian, I got a Hawaiian middle name. Of course, my siblings also have Hawaiian middle names (except for my brother, since he got a Samoan one). My middle name is Nu’ulani, and according to my mom, it means “highest of the heavens.” I know the “lani” part means heaven, and that is a name within itself, which it’s also a popular name in Hawaiian (at least I think xP). Apparently, my mom got this name from a Hawaiian priest, but somehow…I don’t how to believe that statement. Makes me wonder what my mom was thinking at the time, giving me such a grandiose name (for such a simple man as myself). Regardless, I still find the name…awe-inspiring, for a lack of a better explanation. I don’t want to project that I really am “higher than anybody” or any kind of that superiority bull, I just think it’s a neat name. I would know a thing or two about being humble, studying a culture that puts modesty and humility as one of its top treasured virtues. I’m talking about Japanese culture btw 😛 xD Speaking of Japanese culture…

Now the real meat of this thought is that I had been stewing in my odd noggin is comparing naming schemes between Western and Japanese cultures, and it’s actually an intriguing thought process once you give it some time. See, in Japanese culture, Japanese people don’t have middle names. What they have instead is the characters that are assigned to their names. For example, let’s take the stereotypical “Tanaka.” This name can be divvied up into two parts, the “ta” part, and the “naka” part. Both of these parts have their own character assigned to them, which give them the names meaning. The “ta” part gets translated to “rice field” or “rice paddy” and the “naka” part means “in the middle of.” So, you get “in the middle of a rice field.” The neat part is that with Japanese names, they don’t have to follow the same characters to come up with the names they have. Some names have the same sounds, but they have different characters assigned to them, making that name unique to that individual, and that is in large part of the parents own doing.

I wanna show more “flashy” examples, if you will, so I can somewhat convey how cool this kind of naming mechanic is, yet how this makes it insanely difficult to read Japanese names. Let’s take a name like “Misaki” (me-saw-key). Here are three possible names that I’ve found can be pronounced “Misaki” 美彩姫, 心彩希, 魅咲. They all can be pronounced as “Misaki” but give entirely different meanings.
The first one (美彩姫) is made up of “beauty” + “color, hue” + “princess.”
The second one (心彩希) can be broken down as “heart (spirit)” + “color, hue” + “hope.”
The last one (魅咲) can be divvied up as “charm, allure” + “to blossom.”
Ain’t that pretty neat? So with the first one, you have “The color of a princess’ beauty.” The second one can be “the color of spirit and hope.” The third one can mean “blossoming charm” or “ever-blooming allure” (if you want to get all fancy). I just made those meanings on the spot with the meanings I’ve found, so don’t take those made up meanings too seriously xP  To ones that don’t understand the meanings behind the characters, they might perceive this name all the “same” based on sound alone. However, with these characters, they imbue a certain depth into the meaning behind the sound; the “wishes” of the parents if you will. The crazy thing is these characters have multiple ways of being read, and can totally change based on what it is paired up with, or just based on context alone!

See, when I first found out that Japanese people don’t have middle names, I thought “awww how sad is that, it must be a bummer to have names that sound similar with so many other people’s names.” Then I thought “isn’t there some sort of equivalent to a “middle name” in Japanese?” “How would the names differ if there are so many similar sounding names?” As I studied more Japanese and learned more about the characters, it came to me that the “equivalent” has been in front of my face the whole time, it’s just a whole different scheme to comprehend.  I compared these schemes to our “middle name” scheme because, I think in Western culture, our middle names isn’t something we normally put on display for the world to see. Our first names are there sure, so people can address who we are. Our last names are there for other reasons, like family traditions and document-related topics. On the other hand, middle names have this sort of “mystery” surrounding them, no matter how “ordinary” they are. They are chosen, or made up, by the parents (or even grandparents or guardians, etc.) to give the one they are taking care of, a special meaning that they only can understand. Of course, I’m not denying the power and significance of first names, but a first name is out there, meant to be seen by the world, being constantly used by other people, some that you may only meet once in your life (and never again). Having your name used so often, it sometimes can loose it’s “kick” ya know? It’s like when you say a word so many times, or do a task so much, that there isn’t much thought process with what is going on. There isn’t any sort of critical thinking, it’s been made into an “automatic” process.

Sooooo, in a nutshell, TL;DR -> middle names and naming schemes are awesome across cultures. Compare them, find interesting revelations.

Didn’t expect that one to be THAT long…but that idea has been sitting around for more than a month, so I guess I should have saw that coming. Still…names, fascinating topic to me. What about all y’all? Don’t you feel a little special knowing someone’s middle name or hidden meaning behind their name?

‘Til next time, names aren’t labels, they mean something to someone.

Reality Update: Keep Dreaming Keep on Biking

Reality update! Life…time? I don’t know, it’s been a while. First off, for those who didn’t know, I just got done with a Skype Interview with a company that teaches English in Japan. I believe the interview went well. I thought I was going to actually conduct my lesson with two “makeshift” students on the camera, but thankfully, I only had to demonstrate a little bit of it, and explain what I would going to do. It felt more of a “Q&A” than an interview. Sure, they asked me why I wanted to work there and what experience do I have related to the field, but I’ve already done that like 3 times over it’s pretty much ingrained in me (as if 3 years of volunteer experience and going to Japan being a part time English tutor didn’t already do that :P). I’m glad that I had some questions prepped for them, and they pretty much answered all of them. They also suggested some things I can work on and whatnot, and it’s good to hear some advice like that. I’ve been so out of the game, it’s comforting (in a way) to hear some feedback and improve on something I know I can do. All in all, I think it was a pretty neat experience, for my first Skype interview   Relating to if I will get the job, I won’t know about that in 1-2 weeks soooo more waiting x.x but I expected it. Gotta keep my head high and, like a certain fish said, “just keep swimming.”

That Skype interview was pretty much the most interesting thing I had going on…  Just keeping on working, trying to stay afloat, not go insane, the usual 😛
I did buy my own bike so I can get to work without the need for someone to drive me. Getting a ride is nice, but having to ask for a ride, and the…”complaining” to put it lightly, was driving me up a wall. I have to leave earlier to get to work on time, but at least I work up a good sweat huh? I think I’m actually loosing weight because of it, go figure   Plus better for the environment right?…Right? xP

Going back to possibly working in Japan, I know there are other jobs than just teaching English. However, I think this is just the easiest, and straightforward path, since I have experience actually teaching Japanese students. A couple of days ago, I mentioned to a woman that I majored in Japanese and whatnot, relating back to Costco (there is a Costco in Japan apparently, and I WANTS TO GOES TO ITZ    ). Paraphrasing what she said, in this globalizing world of ours, I shouldn’t have any trouble finding a hiring paying job or a job that is related to my field. It honestly did make me feel a little better, but it made me think, do I have to broadcast myself out there more? How the heck do I do that? Anybody got any ideas? Wouldn’t being fluent in Japanese be a plus for trying voice acting too? xP I know becoming a voice actor is a long shot, but I think it’ll be an amazing experience to at least try and dabble in it. However, it’s such a niche market still…so the road in becoming a voice actor really isn’t set out there. I’m just trying to get to work in Japan at this point, improve my Japanese, learn a ton of new things, meet new people, hang out with old friends, is that too much to ask for? (Apparently yes  )

Side note, being able to just sit down and play a ton of Fire Emblem Awakening is pretty satisfying xD Especially since I’m masochistic and want to get as many support conversations as I can (it involves a lot of saving a restarting). Buuuuut the writing and dialogue is just too good to pass up. I know I can just look this stuff up on Youtube, but I’d rather earn it and see it on the game myself. I might cop out sooner or later, but for now, this game is definitely worth the hype (if 70 hours on just the 2nd run through isn’t proof enough xD)

Not really good with transitions…I should work on that probably…since that was one of the feedback things I got from the Skype interview….but it’s just easier just to dive right in!…Okay maybe not. I want to try and make more of these entries, since there are a bunch of ideas that get stuck in my head and I’m like “you need to write that down! Just write the darn idea down!” So, if I say it on here, maybe my brain will be like “oh you said it, now you gotta actually write it down, instead of putting it in this metaphorically file cabinet in your brain.” Sooooo look forward to the next entry, because this idea has been in my head for like over 2 months, and I want to get it out! xP Until then, just keep swimming!