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ArchivesRe: Meaning of name
in reply to a message by desco_cidox
I no longer work for a Japanese company, but I distinctly recall many instances of Yazumi (sic) as a surname, not a personal name. Therefore, it would be neither masculine nor feminine. Afraid I can't help with the meaning.
Japanese have only been required by law since the 1860's to have surnames, so traditional personal names (and there are thousands) have many hundreds of years of prior use and are pretty much well-defined as such. As I understand it, it would be unusual for a Japanese to be given a defined surname as a personal name. Unless he were from Mississippi...
The two names can easily be confused by Westerners, tho, because the given word order used for names in Japan is surname-personal name, whereas in English-speaking countries (at least) the Japanese bearer often reverses the name order to personal name-surname, just to humor us pitiable gaijin...
Incidentally, romaji (Japanese transliterated into the Latin alphabet) never uses a "Y" (as in "Yazumy") to end a Japanese name, unless it's "Hello Kitty" ("Kitty chan").
Japanese have only been required by law since the 1860's to have surnames, so traditional personal names (and there are thousands) have many hundreds of years of prior use and are pretty much well-defined as such. As I understand it, it would be unusual for a Japanese to be given a defined surname as a personal name. Unless he were from Mississippi...
The two names can easily be confused by Westerners, tho, because the given word order used for names in Japan is surname-personal name, whereas in English-speaking countries (at least) the Japanese bearer often reverses the name order to personal name-surname, just to humor us pitiable gaijin...
Incidentally, romaji (Japanese transliterated into the Latin alphabet) never uses a "Y" (as in "Yazumy") to end a Japanese name, unless it's "Hello Kitty" ("Kitty chan").
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