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Hi!
I was wondering if anyone knows what the exact format is for English names when they’re being converted to Japanese. Some people like to adopt a Japanese name, but I’ve just assumed that it’s the English name in Katakana.For example, my name is Tom. In Katakana, would it be トム because that’s the closest sounding thing to ‘Tom’. Is that right?
Also, how do surnames work? It’s my understanding that Japanese names are normally surname first then first-name last, so if I used my name in Japan would it use that same format? Or would it still be firstname-lastname?
Thanks
Hi o/
This is one of those things that doesn’t have a “correct” way of doing things.
Normally its as you said, you use katakana and get as close to the sounding as possible ( if you want to cheat you can use wikipedia and change to 日本語 ）
With regards to the first name / surname thing. Either way is fine i guess, depending on the name most japanese people will be able to tell which is which. I have heard of some confusion though when putting your surname first as it is fairly well known that in the west we use given name – surname so i generally stick with the way it goes in english. ie
はじめまして！クレイグ・マカラレンと申します。
but yeah its mostly down to preference imo. hope this helps o/
Stick with firstname surname order – Japanese people know that’s how Western names work, so they’ll be expecting your given name to come first. As for kanji names, don’t ever do that, unless you’re required for legal reasons.
Using Wikipedia isn’t cheating. It really is the best way to find the standard Japanese spelling of foreign names. =)
You may found this article interesting (I think).
http://www.tofugu.com/2012/05/02/the-right-and-wrong-way-to-write-your-name-in-japanese/I was interested in this topic, as well. Thanks for the answers and link.
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