The change is designed to halt the use of kirakira (shiny or glittery) names that have proliferated among parents hoping to add a creative flourish
Parents in Japan will no longer have free rein over the names they give their children, after the introduction this week of new rules on the pronunciation of kanji characters.
The change is designed to halt the use of kirakira (shiny or glittery) names that have proliferated among parents hoping to add a creative flourish to their children’s names – creating administrative headaches for local authorities and, in some cases, inviting derision from classmates.
While the revisions to the family registry act do not ban kanji – Chinese-based characters in written Japanese – parents are required to inform local authorities of their phonetic reading, in an attempt to banish unusual or controversial pronunciations.
Well this is fucking crazy to me. Almost every single form you ever have to write your name on in Japan also has a section that you have to write the phonetic reading of it as well. The fact that it doesn’t exist on the family register is absolutely bonkers. I know Japan hates updating things, but even back in the day there were multiple readings for the same kanji characters, and the government being ok with ambiguity on official documents is blowing my mind.
Even before the shiny names the article is talking about the names could be wildly different. We’re not talking about not knowing if Ashleigh is pronounced Ash-lee or Ash-lay, it’s like 里香 being commonly read as either Rika or Satoko.
As an aside, Ashleigh is an abomination regardless of how it’s spelled, derived from a toponymic surname that later became a boy’s given name. Parents who give their daughters such names should be put in the stocks and made to eat gruel made from spelt cooked in day-old hotdog water.
Bro how bad did Ashleigh hurt you?
What if my daughter is actually a field with ash trees though?
…what?