I write a lot about how Japanese names work, since they’re quite different from names in Western languages. Japanese people always have two names, a family name such as Yamada or Tanaka and a given name like Hanako or Taro. As in the west, naming trends change from year to year, so that the names being given to this year’s crop of babies always seem strange to everyone until they get used to them. Full names are written family name first, which means that words like “first name” and “last name” are completely useless in the context of Japan, and anime fans might have confusion about whether they should say Miku Hatsune or Hatsune Miku. This rule for name order doesn’t apply to us gaijin by the way: foreigners’ names are always written in Western order. Sometimes Japanese names interface strangely with English, for example the fairly common names of Soh, Sho, Mai or Yuu, which phonetically match the words “so,” “show,” “my” and “you,” causing confusion during English lessons. I even knew a girl whose name was Wako, pronounced with a long vowel in the first syllable (wah-ko), but close enough to the word “wacko” that I felt sorry for her.
Japanese names like Ai from “Hell Girl” conflict with English words.
