English: name
Spanish: nombre
Tagalog: pangalan
Although NAMAE and NAME are pronounced very differently, how similar, by chance, those spellings are!
● この花 (はな) の 名前 (なまえ) を知 (し) っていますか？ (Kono hana-no namae-o shitte imasu-ka?)
Do you know the name of this flower?
● すいません、お名前 (なまえ) は何 (なん) でしたでしょうか？ (Suimasen, onamae-wa nan-deshita de-shooka?)
What was the name, please?
The Japanese language has other words which mean name for example:
- Na 名 (な);
- Shimei 氏名 (しめい); and
- Seimei 姓名 (せいめい)
Like name, namae 名前 (なまえ) and na 名 (な) are used for all things as well as persons.
● あの歌 (うた) の名前 (なまえ) が思 (おも) い出 (だ) せない。(An outa-no namae-ga omoi dase-nai.)
I don’t remember the name of that song.
● 名 (な) をなのれ！ (Na-o nanore!)
Tell me your name!
● 彼女 (かのじょ) はまず子供 (こども) の本 (ほん) の著者 (ちょしゃ) として名 (な) を揚 (あ) げた。(Kanojo-wa mazu kodomo-no hon-no chosha-toshite na-o ageta.)
She first made her name as a writer of children’s books.
Shimei 氏名 (しめい) and seimei 姓名 (せいめい) are used only for persons, because shimei and seimei literary mean ‘family name/surname and given name.’ In those two-kanji expressions, shi (or uji) 氏 and sei 姓 mean family name/surname.
● 下 (した) に氏名 (しめい) と住所 (じゅうしょ) を書 (か) いて頂 (いただ) けますか？ (Shita-ni shimei-to jusho-o kaite itadake-masu-ka?)
Please write your full name and address below?
Seimei 姓名 (せいめい) is especially used for the set expression seimei-hanndan 姓名判断 (せいめいはんだん), which is a fortunetelling by the family and given names.
The last name comes first?
The first and last names may give a kind of confusion to Japanese people. Their family name always comes first; the given name last. If a person’s family name is Sato and the given name Ichiro, his full name is always called Sato Ichiro―not Ichiro Sato. So the last name comes first!
Shita 下 (した) のnamae 名前 (なまえ)
The given name is also called shita-no namae 下 (した) の名前 (なまえ). This literary means ‘below name.’ Because the Japanese used to be written downward only, their given name was stated below the family name. This is why the family name is often called ue-no namae 上 (うえ) の名前 (なまえ).
● 彼女 (かのじょ) の下 (した) の名前 (なまえ) は何 (なん) だったっけ？ (Kanojo-no shita-no namae-wa nandat-tak-ke?)
Do you know what her first/given name is?
The Japanese know that, for the people in the Western and many other countries, the first name stands for the given name (the Japanese’s last name!), and the last the family name (the Japanese’s first name!).
So asked what his name is, Sato Ichiro answers, “My name is Ichiro Sato,” to his English-speaking colleagues and friends. They have soon begun to call him Ichiro by his first name.
Sato may not be comfortable.
As is often the case, a few Japanese call him by his first name. His parents and elder sister call him Ichiro. When he was small, his friends called him Ichiro―not now. Who else? Now only his parents and sister call him Ichiro―and his English-speaking colleagues and friends. All the other people call him Sato.
For some Japanese, their given name is so special that only a few people―their family members or close friends for example―call him by their given name.
Na bakari 名 (な) ばかり
Na 名 (な) is used figuratively, meaning reputation or value like name.
● あのマネジャーは名 (な) ばかりだ。(Ano manejaa-wa na bakari-da.)
That manager plays his role in name only.
● その大学 (だいがく) は言語 (げんご) では名 (な) が高 (たか) いです。(Sono daigaku-wa gengo-dewa na-ga takai-desu.)
The college has a good name for languages.
● このような行 (おこな) いは学生 (がくせい) の名 (な) を傷 (きず) つけている。(Kono-yoona okonai-wa gakusei-no na-o kizu-tsukete-iru.)
This kind of behavior gives students a bad name.
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