How would one say "cherry blossom boy"?

[tombstonehand]

This may seem an odd question, but how would you call someone "cherry blossom boy" as a nickname?

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by tombstonehand

This may seem an odd question, but how would you call someone "cherry blossom boy" as a nickname?

Not an easy question even for this Japanese-speaker. About how old is this "boy"?
_________

EDIT: Seems you quickly went offline so here are a few ideas.

桜少年　（さくらしょうねん）
桜っ子　（さくらっこ）
桜男　（さくらおとこ）

[tombstonehand]

The boy is entirely fictional, but I'll say 15-18 for when he'll be referred to as this. In the story he's in, he's seen from 15 into his 80's (well beyond his boyhood), but I want to make his nickname accurate.

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by tombstonehand

The boy is entirely fictional, but I'll say 15-18 for when he'll be referred to as this. In the story he's in, he's seen from 15 into his 80's (well beyond his boyhood), but I want to make his nickname accurate.

In that case, you might pick the first one.

[tombstonehand]

Originally Posted by masaegu

In that case, you might pick the first one.

I worded what I said in a confusing way. How would you say "cherry blossom boy" for a teenager?

[TBox]

桜少年 is the one for a teenager, sakura-shounen. My Japanese isn't very good at all, but it feels like a very neutral way of putting it. Is this meant to be affectionate or pejorative? Or does his job just happen to deal with cherry blossoms?

桜男 would be for a man.
桜っ子 would be for a young boy.

[tombstonehand]

Originally Posted by TBox

桜少年 is the one for a teenager, sakura-shounen. My Japanese isn't very good at all, but it feels like a very neutral way of putting it. Is this meant to be affectionate or pejorative? Or does his job just happen to deal with cherry blossoms?

It's meant to be affectionate. Someone gives him the nickname one day when he bows and a cherry blossom falls from his shirt collar.

[TBox]

If it weren't for the fact that さくら is a popular girl's name, I'd suggest he be called just 桜くん, sakura-kun. It would be a little like "Mr. Cherry Blossom." Japanese is more accepting of that kind of nickname.

[TBox]

I've been thinking about this for a while now and have my own question about this kind of thing. There's an anthropological issue here. Using "boy" as an appellation in English doesn't quite mean the same thing as in Japan. A few examples:

1. Anime named Code Geass, the main character calls another character オレンジさん. At the time there's no apparent reason for it. For some reason this really tickled the fans, and despite knowing his real name, in Japan they keep calling him オレンジさん. When it came over to the English world, however, オレンジさん quickly became Orange boy.

2. A Chinese character in a Japanese video game is named 紅 美鈴. Everyone in Japan calls her 中国 because they can't decide if she's ほん めいりん or くれない みすず. Before the maker of the game set the record straight, in English we called her China Girl. After the maker settled on ほん めいりん, we all call her Hong Meiling, but Japan still calls her 中国 pretty frequently.

4. I'm sure you're familiar with 電車男. He uses that to identify himself on anonymous message boards because that's his prominent characteristic. When English speakers do the same thing, they use "guy," not "boy." For example, there's a picture floating around of a guy telling stories about how his dad liked to mess with his head. The first one's about his dad filling his room with frog beanie babies. In later stories he introduces himself as "frog guy," which would be the parallel to 電車男.

Also, 電車男's girlfriend is called エルメス. Again, in English, we would've called her Hermes girl, since it derives from her gift of some Hermes brand tea cups.

I could go on with other examples of native Japanese choosing to rename a person completely, where in English we'd add boy or guy or girl, so given all that, I'm wondering if 桜少年 is still the right translation for the effect tombstonehand is trying to achieve. If it is, can you comment on the renaming tendency?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by TBox

Also, 電車男's girlfriend is called エルメス. Again, in English, we would've called her Hermes girl, since it derives from her gift of some Hermes brand tea cups.

Why do you say that?

Plenty of guys get nicknames in English that is just a word. If you're in a frat and run face-first into a tree during a flag football game, people might call you from now on: "Hey, Pecan Tree, check this out!"