B Robson wrote:

> CL's daughter will hate her name too. Imagine giving a child that nasty 
> kanji.

No.  She'll hate me for forcing her to also speak English when all of 
her little friends at the park are speaking Japanese or French and her 
parents are the only English speakers she sees every day ... except for 
Bear in the Big Blue House and Elmo.  The trauma of multilinguality 
should carry us well past the time her name becomes the main issue.

BTW, which kanji would be the "nasty" one ... just for my edification. 
It's a Very Good Thing (^tm) that we didn't get into middle names as 
that one comes from the other side of her family and is written in 
Gaelic.  Gave the US Embassy fits.  The ever efficient clerk at the 
kuyakusho just wrote her first and middle name out as a single word 
consisting of the two kanji and the four katakana for her middle name. 
Having lived in Japan _this_ long, I decided the best course was not to 
attempt to correct her.

> I can't believe that people buy a book and go to consultants to choose 
> names for their kids. Here is some free advice, exactly 3 people care. 
> You, your wife and your poor child stuck with a stupid name.

Believe it.  And you forgot that this is Japan and some host nationals 
have parents who also get involved in negotiating the kanji to make sure 
you use ones that the family finds a good fit with the other kanji that 
have been used over the past several generations.

... apologies for a serious answer ...


CL