Free Japanese Names

Have you ever wondered
what your name looks like in Japanese?

This page has been retired.

If you have arrived at this site, something has led you to an interest in seeing what your name looks like in Japanese. Am I right?

Are you looking for a tattoo of your name, or a special saying in Japanese? Do you want to put your name in Japanese on a T-shirt or business card? How would you like to surprise a friend or relative by sending them their name or "I love you!" in Japanese?

These days, more than ever electronic commerce with Japan is booming! You can impress your clientele by presenting your business card in Japanese.

The History of the Free Japanese Names

Over the years I was providing my "Free Japanese Names" service manually to thousands of people completely free. There was a huge influx of inquiries as Japan and things "Japanese" started to become "the hot thing" all around the world. I recall having an executive from Oracle (the IT company) requesting his name and a relative's in Japanese!

I was busy from dawn until dusk cranking out names for people, wracking my brain for the best possible combination of characters and then shooting them off as quickly as I could.

The Problem that Arose

The amount of requests (and the thanks I received) were so phenomenal that it totally swamped me and overloaded the server as well as my time. Can you imagine coming home from work to 800 emails requesting their name or a special phrase in Japanese? The backlog became tragic and it would often take me weeks to months to reply to the people with their names. I felt terrible, but what could I do? I struggled through it for years until work took up a larger amount of my time and I was forced to retire this wonderful service.

A Crazy Example

Note: This is just a "role-play"; it did NOT happen!

Susan noticed that all the hip movie stars and singers sport tattoos in Japanese these days. Being a fashionable gal she wanted to get a big neon tattoo of her name on her neck and show it off to her boyfriend and friends at school.

She did a search on the internet and came up with a couple of sites. One charged for the service and the other did it for free. Why pay when she could get it for free she thought! So she asked the webmaster to make up her name "Susan" in cool characters for her.

The owner of the site sent her back two characters in a neon pink and green, beautifully designed. She immediately took it to a local tattoo artist and had it imprinted into the back of her neck.

A few days later after it had healed, she went to school with a low cut back dress. Everyone complimented her on how "cool" she looked with the Japanese tattoo of her name. Susan was in heaven!

In fact, she was so happy that she walked directly over to the foreign Japanese student and promptly showed him her tattoo.

"Interesting", he said. "The characters say SuZan but they mean Wretched Den".

If Susan had taken the time to consider the value of her request, communicated with the owners of the site that was charging a nominal fee for her name in Japanese, instead of tattooing "wretched den" on her neck, she could have had "Revere Brilliance".

The Moral of the Story

You get what you pay for! Free sounds great, but sometimes free can be a lot more costly in the long run (Susan immediately went back to the tattoo artist and paid a large amount of money (and pain) to have the tattoo removed. It never came completely off and thus she never wore that low-cut back dress again!)

Both translations could apply depending upon the characters used.

How would you know the difference? You wouldn't unless you were fluent in Japanese or psychic.

Important Note:

For people wanting a tattoo and anyone else looking for the best possible combination of characters for a name or phrase please read this document (31kb pdf file) before making your choice and imprinting it permanently into your skin like Susan did in the story above. Unlike a T-shirt with some mangled saying (as happens more often than not when Japanese use English here) you can't just toss your body away and get a new one.

You certainly would not want to walk around with a big sign in your skin saying, "Happy Pickles" now would you!

**Quick Script Info for Reference:**
	Katakana	This script was used to render foreign words that did not previously exist in the Japanese language, useable in Japanese. It was designed by Buddhist monks and is a phonetic system to render sounds into characters. Most foreign names are written in Katakana. Your name will be translated into Katakana for you completely for free.
	Hiragana	Originally designed by women who wished to use a script that was softer in appearance than the sharp, Chinese characters known as Kanji.
	Kanji	Originating in China, the Japanese began first studying classical texts in this language. Eventually it was modified, simplified and combined with Hiragana and Katakana to produce a totally unique language. There is a very small charge for rendering your name into Kanji, but it is well worth it. The turn-around speed cannot be matched; you can communicate directly with the translator if you have an unusual name or a particular request for a phrase and you will have a complete security guarantee if not totally satisfied with your results.