Asian Names
If you're a hard-core anime fan trying to put in original characters with blond hair, a name with Asian roots and is clearly NOT of Asian descent, just don't. It's not cool at all when the cartoon is specifically for white audiences. Save yourself the humiliation and the effort of running away from Asian mobs with kamas, balisongs and peasant ninjas for hire. It's a bad idea on so many ideological levels that it is offensive because 1) you will offend real Asians and 2) it looks bad visually in the mind's eye.
"Hi, my name is Ayumi Hamasaki and I just transferred to Alfea to improve my fire magic." Ayumi bowed deeply, her long wheat blond blue-streaked hair almost touching the floor.Asians are not considered white people. A white person is someone of European descent only. By Canadian definitions, anyone who is not white is considered a visible minority.
Even if said character with Japanese-sounding name clearly states he or she dyes his or her hair, it is not always aesthetically pleasing on all Asians. Don't look at Asian popstars like Ivy and Utada Hikari for what Asians look like, they're glorified Asian people like Paris Hilton. Real asians don't look like them. A lot of Asians are mistaken for American aboriginals because of Paleo-Indians crossing the Bering Strait oh so many years ago.
Mixed White and Asian Names
Don't give your original character a white first name and an Asian last name. 'Reilly Yamanaka' and 'Desdemona Zheng' does not bode well with Asian mobs either unless he or she is really Asian-looking and his or her parents are immigrants to a white country and/or married a white person.
This does not apply to former European colonies like the Philippines. White names are prevalent in this country because of assimilation. A person named Kimberly Cortez can be Philippino.
Meaning of Asian Names
Don't choose names for their meaning or try to glue them together to have an awesome meaning, you'll just offend someone who actually understands the language and look like an idiot. Your best bet is to go to a 'Top 100 (insert culture) Names' and just pick from there because you have a guarantee that the name will not have a butchered meaning since real parents choose to name their children those names. Be sure to stick to the gender too.
Kikurukina Bal Des'cagel
Advice!
*Filipino
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Kiku!
It could be both if you consider the fact that the letter F didn't exist in their alphabet until after 1987.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I've never seen it spelled like that. The "F" is all I know, my knowledge about Filipino culture/the Philippines is slim to none *shame*.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on when you group, but I hardly think that English should be the language that tells me how to spell a word of non-English origins to begin with.
ReplyDelete"...when you group," should say "...when you grew up".
ReplyDelete