n every generation, most parents take a lot of time thinking about how they should name their child. They usually pick out a name that reflects their hopes that the child will live a happy life, grow up strong, and so on. On the other hand, children’s names also reflect the era. It’s not uncommon that parents name their child after a popular actor, actress or athlete.
According to the ranking of the most popular names by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company, it seems that the trend of children’s names, especially girls’ names, has changed drastically in the last couple of decades. Most girls’ names used to have “ko” at the end, which means “child,” such as “Kazuko” or “Mariko.” Names with “ko” came into existence more than 100 years ago, and they’d been the standard for decades.
However, when you take a look at the ranking for 2008, there’s only one name that has “ko” at the end. In fact, names with “ko” have rarely appeared in the ranking ever since 2000! Instead of these kinds of “traditional” names, you can find “trendy” names that seem to have cute sounds ─ such as Hina, Yui, or Sakura. Names that are originally Western words, such as Canon and Cocoa, are also getting popular.
Other changes are what kanji are being used for children’s names, and how they are read. It used to be pretty straightforward ─ for example, you’d use the kanji “和” with the sound of “kazu” and “子” with the sound of “ko,” and you’d read the name as “Kazuko.” But this is not always the case with modern names. For example, the kanji “大” with the sound of “dai” or “oh” and “翔” with the sound of “sho” may together read “Haruto” or “Hiroto.” And this is just one example among many! If you’re studying Japanese and complaining that Japanese names are too hard to read, don’t worry, because Japanese people are having exactly the same problem!
PR
- 2010/03/22(月) 18:05:49|
- FREE|
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