Job Discussion Forums

[Sherri]

Hi Sweetsee
I have a boy and a girl both born in Japan. We chose western names because we prefered them. But we did make sure that we chose names that would be easy to pronounce in both cultures and not have any negative meaning. (like my husband did not like the name "Ben" or "Debi"--I didn't like Hideo or Yuki) It is really hard to find good boy's names! We couldn't decide until right when he was born, debating between 2 different names. We also decided to write our kids' names in hiragana, not kanji because my husband didn't like it when non-Japanese people just make up kanji by sound to make a western name. (Just his preference! No judgements to those who have done this).

I liked knowing which sex my baby was going to be. It helped me with choosing clothes. There is only so much yellow and white you can buy. Also you can get away with blue on a girl, but it isn't so easy to put pink on a boy.

My husband was with me for the delivery both times once in Aiiku (Hiroo) and the other in Seibo (Mejiro)

Are you preggers?
Sherri

[Gordon]

Gary or Jerry wouldn't be good names either here. "Hi, this is my son "sh! ts" wouldn't go over well.

[Sweetsee]

Of course Gordon. Helps to confirm my theory, most who have a girl first have a boy second, people agree with that?

[rvsensei]

Sons name is Ramon Antonio

[Sweetsee]

Hi Sherri,


Thanks for the reply. Yes preggers, July 31.



Enjoy yourselves,
s

[Sherri]

Congratulations Sweetsee!

Did you have your first in Japan? How are things going? Have you made any decisions about taking maternity leave? I found that after the first few months I started to go stir crazy without an outside job, so I went back to part time after about 10 or 11 months.
Sherri

[Sweetsee]

Thanks Sherri, yes our daughter was born here. Things are going very well and we are planning a home birth with a midwife.


Thanks again.
Enjoy,
s

[TokyoLiz]

I was thinking Risa, Erika, Hana, Mari, Rina for girls...

Kento (reduced to Kent), Joji (anglicized to George), Isamu (anglicized to Sam), Yuri (sounds Russian, eh?) for boys.

Hiroko/Hiroki always gets reduced to Hiro, which is kinda cool too.

[Gordon]

Congrats Sweetsee. There is not nearly as much adjustment required for the second baby, things go much smoother and you have more confidence.

[Sweetsee]

Thanks Gordon, you are very kind.

[king kakipi]

We're still expecting our first kid (boy) at the beginning of this May....

[markle]

Two interesting names I've come across were Oura (Aura?) and Kurea (Claire?) I don't know if they were supposed to be Japanese approximations of English names or not but they striked me aqs being out of the ordinary.

Personally I'd be much more interested in the meaning of the name rather than the phonetic attractiveness.

[Sweetsee]

Congratulations King!

[Gordon]

I have found it very rare for Japanese women to not know the baby's sex before they are born. In Canada, just the opposite, most women don't want to know. Another big difference, is the number of ultrasounds, so that could be a big factor. In Canada, you get one, unless it is high-risk. In Japan there are more than a dozen.

[Sweetsee]

At the last ultra-sound the doctor asked if we wanted to know the sex, we said not sure yet. Then, he said that because we had a girl we probably wanted a boy. We took this as a hint.