My name in kanji

[Jeikobu]

Hi, I'm trying to learn to write my name in kanji. I found a site once that had information on this, and found a translation of my name (Jacob) that I liked. For some reason the site said Jacob means "may God protect", while in reality it means "he who grabs by the heel". Never the less, I am trying to take what I can get. Here is the kanji:

It is supposed to mean "benevolence which cures, protects, and helps = may God protect". However, I do not know how to pronounce this. If I could type it, I could know, but I can figure out a couple of the characters. I don't even know if it's supposed to be said as "Jeikobu", or "Yakobu". I remember my sensei telling me she didn't think there were any kanji for "jei", and so it would be better to use "Yakobu". Still, the site I found (can't remember the link now) literally said "ジェイコブ / じぇいこぶ" (Jeikobu (in katakana and hiragana)).

Can anyone help me learn how to read this?

[MMM]

If you have a Japanese teacher that tells you that you can write Jacob in kanji, you need to get a new teacher.

Ask 100 Japanese people to read that kanji and you will get 1000 different answers how to read it, and none of the will be anything close to Jacob.

I said it before and I will say it again, unless your native languages uses kanji, you don't get to have kanji in your name.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by TheLastFortnight

But if the name is Japanese is it easier to know the kanji which it is written?
My surname, I'm not worried about telling it, is Yoneyama and when I was at my Japanese language school my teacher said it's written like this in kanji:

米山

It depends. That's the only way I have seem Yoneyama written, so unless your family had an obscure way of writing it, chances are it is right. However some names can be written many different ways, and, on the other side, some names are difficult to read.

[duo797]

Originally Posted by Jeikobu

Hi, I'm trying to learn to write my name in kanji. I found a site once that had information on this, and found a translation of my name (Jacob) that I liked. For some reason the site said Jacob means "may God protect", while in reality it means "he who grabs by the heel". Never the less, I am trying to take what I can get.

Just out of my own curiosity, your name comes from the biblical story where the second son is chosen instead of the first, right? Cause that's what strikes me as familiar about that meaning.

[Jeikobu]

Originally Posted by MMM

If you have a Japanese teacher that tells you that you can write Jacob in kanji, you need to get a new teacher.

Ask 100 Japanese people to read that kanji and you will get 1000 different answers how to read it, and none of the will be anything close to Jacob.

I said it before and I will say it again, unless your native languages uses kanji, you don't get to have kanji in your name.

Don't speak badly of my sensei. She is as Japanese as they come. She was born and raised in Japan, lived there for a large part of her life, and is a terrific teacher who taught me most of what I know about the Japanese language. She said my name can be written in kanji, but she did say I should use "Yakobu" (the same name, accept it comes from "Yakov" (the original Hebrew name), not "Jacob", the English transliteration) since there's no kanji for "Jei" (as in "Jeikobu"). I know that people can get their names done in kanji. I've heard that even people in Japan can do that for you. Besides, if so many sites talk about it, I doubt it's false. BTW, my sensei didn't give me the site that kanji came from (the one I mentioned); I found that one myself.

Originally Posted by duo797

Just out of my own curiosity, your name comes from the biblical story where the second son is chosen instead of the first, right? Cause that's what strikes me as familiar about that meaning.

Yes, that's right. Jacob was the second son of Isaac. He tricked his father into giving him his older brother Esau's birthright. The story is found in Genesis 25:19-28:9. ^^

[packetpirate]

Don't try to pass off your teacher's mistakes just because she's Japanese. You are not Japanese... you cannot write your name in anything but Katakana without it being read as nonsense. Listen to MMM... he's the most knowledgeable person (besides Nagoyankee) about Japanese that I've seen on these boards.

[komitsuki]

Originally Posted by Jeikobu

Can anyone help me learn how to read this?

I'll give you a real life advertisment example in Japan.

YouTube - Japanese commercial

Please watch the clip from 1:31 to 1:46 and see why reading Kanji can be too haphazard for foreign loanwords today.

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by Jeikobu

Don't speak badly of my sensei. Blah blah

I would have told you exactly what MMM did. I'm a native speaker and have lived in Japan for many a decade since birth. Your name won't be written in kanji in Japan, period.

How much you love your teacher has nothing to do with this fact. She couldn't possibly say what she said in a classroom in Japan. The students know better and their parents know better. The other teachers know better as well. Sadly, over where you are, no one knows better.

Why do you even think we created katakana? Yes, so that we can write your name. Try doing something great (or horrible) so that you will be able to see how your name will be written in Japanese newspapers. You AREN'T going to see 治恵護輔 or any other kanji combo.　You will see ジェイコブ or　ジェーコブ.

Truth hurts, but that's life. You (or your teacher or those silly websites you speak of) are not about to change the way we write Japanese. It's already perfect in its own way as all other natural languages are.

[Kyousuke]

Originally Posted by MMM

If you have a Japanese teacher that tells you that you can write Jacob in kanji, you need to get a new teacher.

Ask 100 Japanese people to read that kanji and you will get 1000 different answers how to read it, and none of the will be anything close to Jacob.

I said it before and I will say it again, unless your native languages uses kanji, you don't get to have kanji in your name.

thank god my names in japanese

[KyleGoetz]

Jacob could, of course, adopt a Japanese name. I did this while abroad because I got tired of カイル／カエル mistakes.

This must be possible, because the Japanese government used to even require such for people becoming naturalized (you were required to take a Japanese surname). It's not required anymore, but there are people who still do. Arudo Debito is a famous example: Debito Arudou - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. If I were forced to do the same, I could easily adopt the name 小川じん because my first name means the same as Ogawa (a strait/small river) and my last name means "God," which in a first name could be Jin. I just feel weird actually writing 小川神, so I'd choose to stick with kana.

If you do this, it may be possible to choose a similar name. Jacob is the second son in a famous story, so maybe 次郎 or 二郎.

However, if you really want a kanji name that badly, start studying Chinese and adopt a transliteration there, since that's the only way to write your name in that language.

Franky, I'm a little shocked by Nagoyankee's response. I studied at a Japanese university in Tokyo, and a respected professor of Japanese history there created kanji names for each foreign student in one of our small classes. This wasn't at the behest of any student there, but of his own initiative. This indicates it's at least considered acceptable by some learned Japanese people, as there was no evidence of student pressure to do so.

In any case, the kanji name you have proposed is definitely unusable in Japan. As no one has answered you yet, if I were presented with that 4-character compound, I would read it as "jiegoho" or "jiegofu" and then ask wtf it means. For reference, the characters mean, in order: govern/cure, grace/kindness, protect, assist. There's no clear way on how to pronounce that compound, though. The first can be read as ji/chi, the second as kei/e, the third as go, the fourth as ho/fu. I'm sure there are other readings, but those are the ones I know.