Japanese name

A Japanese name has a simpler structure compared with in western countries, East Asia, and other parts of the world.

In Japanese, the family name is always placed first. To avoid confused, some, particularly academics use a common convension in the world that upper case letters for surname and .like Takuya MURATA where the former is a first name and the later is the surname. There is no middle name, pet name, or other convensions.

In other words, the lack of knowledge about the complex of letters, alphabets, and pronounciations sometimes causes a trouble among people who have when they live in Japan.

Like Chinese, within families, adults rarely refer to each other by personal names. People are generally refer to each other by family title (for example big sister, second sister, third sister). When speaking of non-family social accquaintances people are generally refered to by their surname. (For example Murata). Personal names are used when refering to adult friends or to children. In practice, Japanese hardly call a name, even when they do greetting.

During the period when the typical parents have several newborns, it is a common practice among them to name their children by numbers with ro (meaning man) like Ichi (one) ro, Ji (two) ro, Sabu (three) ro, Si (four) ro, Go (five).

Quite few Japanese have a western name (anglicized name) because the Romaji or are good enough for English-speakings to recognize easily. For example, Takuya (村田) Murata (拓哉)

The Japan's Emperor has the no sunname for the historical reason. In the ancient time, people in Japan are considered the property of the Emperor and their surname reflects the role in the government they serve.

The common surnames in Japan are Sato, Kato, Suzuki, Takahashi.

See also: Name