Ethnography: Greetings & Introductions

 

The naming system in Japan vs America is very different. Starting with how the family name in Japan always comes first and comes second in America. There can be similarities where when two people get married one of the switches their name to the same as the other. Even though they both have this similarity in Japan they have to follow this but in America, it's a choice. Even though marriages usually follow this rule in America if you want to you could combine the family name or not switch at all. Now going back to Japan, middle names are very uncommon and usually don't exist. Their names are all usually in Kanji but it's possible to have hiragana and katakana names. Women's names in Japan are in hiragana more than males. There are also usually not any spaces in their names, unlike in America where there is a space between the first and last name. Along with people names in Japan when people are close they add nickname-like parts to each other's names. These nicknames can consist of Chan, Kun, and San. Overall names in Japan are very interesting and are different from the ones in the western world.