Poetics of Japanese Naming Practice

Abstract

Abstract The present study examines naming of newborn babies in Japan. Based on an existing survey on given names, literature on naming, and concrete examples, I will give an overview of the naming patterns. Further, I will argue that naming of babies in contemporary Japan is more than choosing a name from a limited set of options. Rather, it is an act of sign creation that has rich implications for sociocultural meanings within the bounds of societal control. As linguistic signs, names have phonological as well as visual forms. Naming in Japan is inseparable from the decision on which Kanji characters are used to write the name. Balancing all aspects of names-linguistic, semantic, legal to aesthetic-name givers express their envisioned identity of the baby in the name.