Need help with naming my baby

[Karoube]

Hello!

I live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I speak French but will do my best to be understand in English here

My daughter is named Hanae as my husband and I both deeply love the japanese culture. I have chose the branch + flower kanji to write her name (sorry I dont have the japanese language on my keyboard). In French we pronunce it a-na-ay (the first 2 "a" sounds like in America or hahaha and the final e sound like your usual a). I was our way to make it easier for people to pronunce it in French here.

I will have a second daughter in January. I would like to name her with a japanese name too.
The one we both love right now is Mei... but:

- I'm not sure about the exact pronunciation in japanese as this is a chinese name too and it seems more usual in chinese. I pronunce it may-eh in japanese. I would like someone to confirm it. Some person told me it is more like "may", but it sounds more like a anglisization to me, but still I can be wrong too.

- I found that Mei may means "light/clear" and can be write with the sun and moon kanjis... but it was not on a serious japanese site so I would need a confirmation of that.

- I like the kanjis for sprout and life too...but would need confirmation too.

- If you know other females japanese names who would fit in your idea in a French/English world, that would be nice to hear it!

thanks,

Nancy

[minminRW]

- I'm not sure about the exact pronunciation in japanese as this is a chinese name too and it seems more usual in chinese. I pronunce it may-eh in japanese. I would like someone to confirm it. Some person told me it is more like "may", but it sounds more like a anglisization to me, but still I can be wrong too
In Japanese, there is no differnce between Mei and May.

- I found that Mei may means "light/clear" and can be write with the sun and moon kanjis... but it was not on a serious japanese site so I would need a confirmation of that.

Perhaps you mean 明. I think it is not good choice.
Commonly this kanji is used for Male and pronounced Akira.
There may be many Japanese girl called Mei-chan, their names are written as below.

明依，明唯，芽衣，芽依，芽惟，芽唯，芽意，愛衣
明=bright，唯=only，芽=sprout，衣=cloths，依=reliance，惟=think� ��愛=love

- I like the kanjis for sprout and life too...but would need confirmation too.
芽生
Possible, but difficult to read.

- If you know other females japanese names who would fit in your idea in a French/English world, that would be nice to hear it!
For example
Anna　杏奈、安菜
Mari　真理、麻里、茉莉

[Karoube]

so if I understand you, the sound "ei" in japanese should be speak like the English "a" or like the sound we hear in the month of may in English? I just want it to make it clear because it's important to me and as I need to translate the pronunciation in French after all, it's not easy at all to be sure to understand right!

It's strange because I dont find the same pronunciation of japansese voyels when I look to English sites and French sites!

in French, it says that "e" = something beetween the English a and the e you hear in tell for exemple

i = the same as in French. like the English e

and it says that every voyels should be hear... that's why I understand that mei was may-eh
but I read too that ei is sometimes pronunce like a long ee, it depend of the speaker.. did it's right? I dont know what to believe!

so how would you pronunce Hanae in correct japanese?

et Yumei? Yume? I dont catch the difference beetween "mei" and "me" I guess..


thanks for the female names... they are too usual around here for our taste but thanks for the try! We would like something that sounds more japanese, but can be pronunce in French..

[MMM]

Yes, the name "Mei" would sound like "May" in English.

More accurately it would be May-ee

[minminRW]

Ｃｈｅｃｋ here, I cannot understand french pronunciation.
Gojūon - Wikipédia

Japanese has only 5 vowels, very simple.

[Karoube]

thanks! so it would be may-e but it may sounds like may. I guess I will need to find a French-Japan forum to be sure, but thanks a lot anyway!!

[girigiri]

For French, it would be the mais of mais oui.

However, if you have access to any (anime etc.) DVD set in a school with Japanese audio available, the ei is the same as that for 先生 (sensei.)

[KyleGoetz]

On an unrelated note, "Ken" is a good name that works in English and Japanese. When I lived in Japan, a family I knew had a baby named Ken(to). I pointed out that my dad was named Ken, and in the West it means "strong" or "handsome" (it's a Gaelic name).

The father was pretty pleased.