Name Questions

Cardcaptor Takato · Post by **Cardcaptor Takato** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 9:34 am

I have two questions about the names of Sailor Moon characters that's been bugging me for a while now, so hopefully you guys can help me out. Here's the first question. In Japanese episode 47 of Sailor Moon R, Ail and En transfer to Usagi's school, disguising themselves as ordinary humans. Ail's disguise name is given as "Ginga Seijuro" and Umino comments about how "his name sounds too good to be true." I know that ginga means galaxy in English, but what does "Seijuro" mean and why is his name "too good to be true"?

My second question is about Umino's name. We all know that his name is "Umino Gurio", with Umino being his surname and Gurio being his "first name." But if Gurio is his "first name" and Umino is his "surname", how come everybody, including Naru, still calls him "Umino"? This sometimes happens in other anime series too (like with Yamazaki in Cardcaptor Sakura), so I don't know if this has anything to do with Japanese culture or what. I don't know a lot about honorifics or the Japanese culture, so I hope you guys can answer these questions.

RoastedTwinkies · Post by **RoastedTwinkies** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 9:48 am

There are people I know that prefer being called by their last names. Maybe Umino prefers being called by his last name? I have no idea.

Here's another theory. Calling someone by their last name followed by the honorific 'san' or 'kun' shows untra respect for that person. But that theory fails because Naru, his girlfriend still calls him Umino. Hence, the first theory makes a lot more sense IMO.

Sailorasteroid · Post by **Sailorasteroid** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 5:16 pm

I think using the surname without an honorific can be a sign of disrespect in this case, because Umino's not worth the title. It's like in English, "Hello, Mr. Smith" shows respect, but "Hello, Smith" implies that the speaker is superior. Watch the episode where Usagi is trying to get Umino to go on a date with her so she can track Rei and Mamoru. She says "Umino. . . kun!" like she's trying to butter him up.

Cardcaptor Takato · Post by **Cardcaptor Takato** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:29 pm

But if calling someone only by their surname without a honorific is disresptecable, why does even Naru call him Umino even after they start dating?

NameGoesHere · Post by **NameGoesHere** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:40 pm

Well, considering that Umino is the butt-monkey of the early series, I'd say Sailorasteroid is right. He's the kind of guy who gets dumped on a lot at school, so it seems logical. And the deal with Naru calling him Umino after they start dating could either be a force of habit, or perhaps he doesn't like his given name. To me, it seemed like Naru liked to pretend that she didn't like Umino in front of other people, so that might be another factor.

As far as the name Ginga Seijuurou (銀河星十郎), the only kanji I can translate (since I hardly know squat) is this:

銀 - gin, the kanji for silver

星 - sei, the kanji for hoshi/star

十 - juu, the kanji for the number ten

The other two, 河 (ga) and 郎 (rou), I'm not sure of. However, I can tell you for sure that 'Ginga' does not mean 'galaxy' in this case, due to the kanji. I remember seeing a full translation on a website somewhere, but it was a long time ago and I seem to have lost the url. ^^;

machoduck · Post by **machoduck** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:09 am

NameGoesHere wrote: The other two, 河 (ga) and 郎 (rou), I'm not sure of. However, I can tell you for sure that 'Ginga' does not mean 'galaxy' in this case, due to the kanji. I remember seeing a full translation on a website somewhere, but it was a long time ago and I seem to have lost the url. ^^;

The kanji for 'galaxy' actually is 銀河, which translates literally into "silver river" or "silver stream" and refers to the Milky Way. 郎 is commonly found at the ends of boy's names, and means 'male' or 'son'. As for 'Seijuurou' all together, the name would mean something like 'star's tenth son' or something like that.

As for Umino being called by his last name: I was under the impression that it's pretty normal in Japan, even among close friends.

NameGoesHere · Post by **NameGoesHere** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:53 am

machoduck wrote:
NameGoesHere wrote: The other two, 河 (ga) and 郎 (rou), I'm not sure of. However, I can tell you for sure that 'Ginga' does not mean 'galaxy' in this case, due to the kanji. I remember seeing a full translation on a website somewhere, but it was a long time ago and I seem to have lost the url. ^^;
The kanji for 'galaxy' actually is 銀河, which translates literally into "silver river" or "silver stream" and refers to the Milky Way. 郎 is commonly found at the ends of boy's names, and means 'male' or 'son'. As for 'Seijuurou' all together, the name would mean something like 'star's tenth son' or something like that.

As for Umino being called by his last name: I was under the impression that it's pretty normal in Japan, even among close friends.

Thank you, thank you! ^_^ I didn't recognize the kanji (I just started learning), and I couldn't find either of them in my kanji books. It would help if my Japanese/English translation book had the actual kanji next to the word, instead of having to look each character up individually based on syllable. I'm just glad I didn't mess up the ones I did recognize. >_<*

/rant on cheap study guides

Kaleth-Adara · Post by **Kaleth-Adara** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:32 pm

Cardcaptor Takato wrote:But if calling someone only by their surname without a honorific is disresptecable, why does even Naru call him Umino even after they start dating?

Dropping honorifics actually implies closeness in Japan. For instance, if Usagi and Mamoru didn't have their nicknames for each other (Usako and Mamo-chan - these nicknames are like an English equivalent of sweetheart or another affectionate nickname) and if they had a typical Japanese dating relationship in Japan, it would go more of like this...

Before they start dating - Would likely refer to each other as Chiba-san and Tsukino-chan

When they first start dating - Would call each other the above for a while or could switch right away to Mamoru-san and Usagi-chan

After a few months - Usagi and Mamoru

From my example, you can see the progression - they'd be extra polite at first. Then they'd be a bit more casual by referring to each other by their given names but still tacking on the honoriffic. Then when they feel more comfortable with each other they'll drop the honoriffic entirely.

Now there's always exceptions, especially in anime. I'm guessing Umino has the -kun dropped not for closeness reasons, but for the reasons of "he's not worth an honoriffic/respect because he's an idiot" sort of thing. Though when Umino and Naru start dating Naru keeps referring to him as simply Umino. This time she's calling him Umino for more of closeness reasons, like I mentioned above with the "Usagi and Mamoru after a few months" thing. She calls him that right away because, well, wouldn't it be odd for her to suddenly start calling him "Umino-kun" after years of calling him simply "Umino"? She's already comfortable with calling him that but she does it in a loving way now instead of the "he's an idiot" way.

I hope that makes sense.

Edit: One more thing: For clarification I will point out that most of the time people in Japan DO NOT refer to each other on a given name basis (honoriffic or not) unless they are family, dating, or close friends. Otherwise it's almost always family name + honoriffic.