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Sanae78
Hi Christine!
Let me start by congratulating you (again) on the birth of your baby girl! I noticed you gave her a Japanese middle name (and a very pretty one at that!). Is her first name Japanese as well? It's one of those names that could be either or.
I'm nowhere near TTC but when we do, we really want to give our kids Japanese middle names, or even first names if they're not too difficult to pronouce.
My question to you is, how did you come up with your LO's middle name? I was flipping through a Japanese name book my parents have and it is extensive! There are so many things to take into consideration like the character's meaning, the number of strokes, etc. And of course one name can have like 5 different ways of writing it.
Did you work through those things to come up with the middle name, or did you just like it? There are several names I like, but DH really wants a unique name. And of course my kanji knowledge is not good enough to decide how to write it.
Anyway, just wanted to pick your brain a little on the topic 
-- Stuff I Like
Re: Sanae78
Married Bio
I like the name Kaede (ka-eh-deh) but I think people might think it's some new fangled way to spell Katie!!
I also saw the name Yuna in the Japanese name book. I think the Korean figure-skater's name is Yuna, too? I also liked Nami (I know a Korean girl named Nami, too!), Minami, Mina. DH likes the name Momoko. I have a friend named Momoko and she got teased a lot in elementary school for her name so I'm kind of against it...
One name I like that could work both ways is Marina. I don't know if that's too nautical, though, LOL.
My parents are Kumiko and Masakazu. I don't think Masa would be a bad name for a boy. DH likes the name Ryo, and I think it's OK.
A lot of my younger students (Jr. High) in Japan had names I had never heard of like Tsukuha, Rio, Yuzuru, etc.
There are so many names with such interesting meanings, it's so hard to just pick one!
Unfortunately, here in Australia, Maya's name gets mispronounced a LOT. Aussies tend to pronounce her name May-uh...instead of 'My-Ah'. It's especially confounding when I am in conversation with someone and saying Maya's name a lot and they STILL call her 'May-Ah', 5 seconds after I have just said her name.
I actually was told by another mum at a playground that I am pronouncing my daughter's name wrong and it's 'May-Uh (a lot of women here name their daughters Maya but pronounce it 'May-Uh' which makes me chuckle) and she pointed out her logic: apparently one must pronounce a name how it is phonetically spelled.
So I asked her if she pronounced photo "Pee-Hoto". That shut her up. Pffffft.
My friend's name is Maya and she got May-uh all the time. I can't believe that mom at the playground said that about Maya's name. And I can't believe people mispronouce Kaya!
I had someone once tell me that my name was not Japanese, but actually Spanish. Um, really? I tried really hard not to roll my eyes and walk away.
Christine, yeah I think Japanese names will be mispronounced no matter what. DH and I will be having some looong discussion about this! We've talked about names we like but if DH likes one name, I don't, and if I like one name, he knew someone by that name whom he didn't like. I think everyone goes through that. I wonder if my IL's are going to suggest some names?