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Hello,my name is barbara and I need help. -
10-05-2011, 07:26 AM
I want to get a tattoo, the name of someone very special to me, I was wondering if maybe you could help me, I'd really appreciate it. I tried the translation one but I'm afraid itll mean something else. My friends name is Elaine or Lainey as I call her. Help Please? Thank you.
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10-05-2011, 08:46 AM
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10-05-2011, 08:58 AM
Pretty much what MMM said. You can't write your friend's name in Japanese... It would cease to be her name altogether. Japanese has a different sound set than English, so even if you wrote something that sounded similar, it would only sound similar and not be that name.
If you want a tattoo of something that sounds kind of like your friend's name, go for it, I suppose. But it will never mean her name, even to native speakers.
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10-05-2011, 09:20 AM
What they are trying to explain to you is that Japanese has no "r"'s, and instead uses "l". So Elaine would sound ERAIN, a bit like "electronically enhanced rain". Also all syllables end with a vowel; all except the sound "n".
I wrote a calligraphy for my friend's baby (half British half Japanese), and her name is Elena. I used E - RE(i)- NA sounding characters, as follows: 恵怜奈 Although they chose the character for her name. 
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10-05-2011, 09:32 AM
lol sorry John, I posted the wrong link
 , but that was the little ankle biter.
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10-06-2011, 03:07 AM
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10-06-2011, 09:52 PM
I am really slow when it comes to understanding stuff because I went to college for too long so please forgive the naive question I am about to ask.("A lot of people go to school for 7 years!" "Yeah..they're called doctors." - Chris Farley & David Spade)
What I have read is that she should not get the Japanese equivalent of her friend's name because: A) there is no equivalent or if there is .. it will be the Japanese version of what Elaine / Laney might be? B) the deep meaning we all perceive when we see the word "Elaine" or "Laney" (ahhh, the thousands of images these sacred words conjure in my mind is nearly overpowering) will not be faithfully represented with the characters needed to create "Elaine" or "Laney" in Japanese.
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10-06-2011, 11:34 PM
My wife also has kanji compound name that most Japanese need to ask how to pronounce. Her parents chose the kanji with only personal preference in mind, and so did a friend to her child. And nobody has ever asked what my name means. Meanings of names or it's etymology simply are not important to (dare I say) most of the people, even in Japan.
I believe westerners are mostly concerned of how names sound and Japanese on top of that, how it looks written. Of course if the most suitable kanji compound for a name has a meaning like "federation of evil" (as does mine) or something, then some reconsideration might occur. Just a tad on the side, but I once went to look for this Chinese dude in Yokohama Chinatown I've heard of, who was very good at writing western names in Chinese characters. Wanted to get a calligraphy poster for my sister with her chinetized name, but alas, didn't find him. Point being that Chinese has better rules for writing western names in kanji than Japanese.
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10-07-2011, 12:30 AM
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Hiberno = Ireland Franco = French Russo = Russian Sino = China Anglo = England etc. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Append...ality_prefixes
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