Names

[Redpage]

I was wondering, how would my name look in japanese?

My name is Kristin.

I would love to see me name in kanji or whatever it is;)

[natemb]

The Japanese write foreign names in katakana, the Japanese alphabet reserved mainly for writing foreign words. I'm not sure what the standard katakana way of writing Kristin would be, but I would write it like this:

クリステン (pronounced like "kureesten")
or
クリスティン　(pronounce more like "kureesteen")

[skrhgh3b]

you might want advice from a japanese in transliterating your name into kanji, but a japanese wrote my name with these: 杏奴留（あんどりゅう）B)

[Binsento]

When i get married, i will have to get a kanji familyname in order to be registered.
My girlfriend and i checked my options and the best we could find would say "Big bottle of poo" written in Kanji. haha
Another friend told me that his friend who's name i forgot came up with "2 naked devils dancing backwards" in kanji, haha

[Binsento]

The key is to take parts of your name, then japanese that name, so for me it's Binsento.
Bin has maybe like 10 kanjis, which all mean something else
Bin = 便or 敏　or 鬢　or 瓶 etc. etc.
So you can come up for a hundreds of combinations for your name. Another thing is that the sounds can change depending on the other kanji and their location.

But what you can do is this, your name is Kirstin which means "Anointed, Christian", you can get that translated to Kanji, but this probably pronounced completely different than Kirstin.
and now my fingers are cold from typing.

I hope it's all clear.

[Mukade]

Binsento wrote:
When i get married, i will have to get a kanji familyname in order to be registered.

Where did you hear this?

You can register a marriage without a kanji name - they'll just list your name in katakana. The only time you need a kanji name is when you apply for Japanese citizenship.

In that case, of course, you wouldn't just "kanji-ize" your own name, but choose an entirely different, more traditional Japanese name.

[Harisenbon]

As mukade said, you only need a Japanese name for citizenship, and it has to be an officially recognized name. I could not use the kanji I selected for my last name 波白, because it's not standardly used. Note, this is not from personal experience, but rather from what I've read on the net. Take with a grain of salt. However, I am married, and my name is still Perhac.

[Binsento]

Ah ok, i did not know that.
I was told (can't remember where) that it was also necessary to change my name when getting married.
In Japan, is it also possible to adapt my wife's family-name?

[Harisenbon]

Binsento,
Yes, you can adopt your wife's family name, or she can take on yours. It is not necessary to decide which you will do when you first file the papers. From filing, you have 6 months in which you can change your name. After the 6 months, you will have to pay the standard fee for changing your name (I believe it's 6000 yen).

Note that if you get married in Japan, you have to have a "Certificate of Competence to Marry" (I forget the Japanese name, it's long) which you can only receive from your consulate. It takes a lot of time to get one, so if you are planning on getting married, it's best to start the process early.

Also note that getting married does not automatically give you the 永住 status, or change your visa status. You have to talk to the ministry of immigration to deal with that. Immigration also takes a damn long time as well.

[Binsento]

Thanks for the info !
I also heard that for applying for a visa i would have to leave the country and apply from S-Korea (because it's the closest)
Will a certificate of eligibility also help to speed up the process?