Name Pronunciation

[tofugoddess79]

I have been online all day looking for a website that will show the proper pronunciation for the name "Kaida". I want to name my new kitten either "Suki" or "Kaida" because I like the meanings and I have spent many hours looking for names, but I want to be sure I am pronouncing the name properly to begin with. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

--Angie

[phreadom]

I have been online all day looking for a website that will show the proper pronunciation for the name "Kaida". I want to name my new kitten either "Suki" or "Kaida" because I like the meanings and I have spent many hours looking for names, but I want to be sure I am pronouncing the name properly to begin with. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

--Angie

The best way I can explain it is to say that Kaida (かいだ) is pronounced like "ka-ee-da".

Suki, as in "すき" meaning "to like" or whatever... is actually pronounced more like "ski (skee)" rather than "soo-kee". So unless you want your cat to sound like it's named after a sport, you might just go with かいだ.

Hope this helps!

[TJack]

Hello tofugoddess79,
I'll start with Suki because I have a feeling you're pronunciation that wrong. I'm going to guess that
you're pronouncing it like sue-key, but in Japanese, it's pronounced just like ski (like as in skiing down a mountain).


For Kaida:
The Kai- sounds like the word guy or eye, or the Ki- in kite.
Da sounds like Fa in Father, just with a D sound and not a F sound. In fact the Ka- in Kaida is pronounced like
this, but the i sound (which sounds like the ee in bee) morphs together to get the "eye" or "guy" sound.

Edit: Ninja'd by phreadom

[becki_kanou]

You said you chose the names for their meanings, but what do you think they mean? Neither of them are normal Japanese names. (Although since it's a cat I guess it doesn't really matter.)

Suki means "like/love" and Kaida means "a good clean hit" in baseball lingo, or the past tense of the verb kagu; to smell.

[tofugoddess79]

Well if you look up the names on Japanese baby name sites the names mean:
Suki= One who is loved
Kaida= Little Dragon

I have checked just about every website I can find to make sure I wasnt getting false info also. So, If I have gotten the meanings wrong, this was all according to websites.
I still like the names, but thats odd that Suki is pronounced as "ski".

[becki_kanou]

Hmm... I don't know what site in particular you used, but it would appear that the site is not well-researched.

If you like the name Little Dragon , it would be Koryuu or Shouryuu (小龍), although this isn't a "real" name. Love is Ai (愛), which actually is quite a common girl's name and in fact, the Japanese crown prince's little daughter is called Aiko.

[furrykef]

I'll start with Suki because I have a feeling you're pronunciation that wrong. I'm going to guess that
you're pronouncing it like sue-key, but in Japanese, it's pronounced just like ski (like as in skiing down a mountain).

I wouldn't say that pronouncing "Suki" as "sue-key" is wrong if you're speaking English. If you're saying it in Japanese, then yes, it'd be wrong, but the rules of Japanese pronunciation don't apply to English. After all, in English we say "frijole" and "tamale" as "free-ho-lee" and "tah-mah-lee", not "free-khol-leh" (where "kh" is as in "loch") and "tah-mah-leh". Few of us ever pronounce all foreign words exactly as they're pronounced in their language of origin -- or even attempt to -- and usually those of us who do are seen as pretentious.

- Kef

[ニッキー]

I wouldn't say that pronouncing "Suki" as "sue-key" is wrong if you're speaking English. If you're saying it in Japanese, then yes, it'd be wrong, but the rules of Japanese pronunciation don't apply to English. After all, in English we say "frijole" and "tamale" as "free-ho-lee" and "tah-mah-lee", not "free-khol-leh" (where "kh" is as in "loch") and "tah-mah-leh". Few of us ever pronounce all foreign words exactly as they're pronounced in their language of origin -- or even attempt to -- and usually those of us who do are seen as pretentious.

I'm not sure I agree, those are sounds which don't normally exist in English words so they sound foreign (and hence pretentious) but ski is a perfectly ordinary English sound.

[TJack]

I'll start with Suki because I have a feeling you're pronunciation that wrong. I'm going to guess that
you're pronouncing it like sue-key, but in Japanese, it's pronounced just like ski (like as in skiing down a mountain).

I wouldn't say that pronouncing "Suki" as "sue-key" is wrong if you're speaking English. If you're saying it in Japanese, then yes, it'd be wrong, but the rules of Japanese pronunciation don't apply to English. After all, in English we say "frijole" and "tamale" as "free-ho-lee" and "tah-mah-lee", not "free-khol-leh" (where "kh" is as in "loch") and "tah-mah-leh". Few of us ever pronounce all foreign words exactly as they're pronounced in their language of origin -- or even attempt to -- and usually those of us who do are seen as pretentious.

- Kef

I understand what your saying, I just wanted to point out how that particular word sounds like in Japanese.
I kinda thought, if it wasn't pronounced as "ski" then it wouldn't truly be a Japanese name (word), just something
that came from Japanese, but sounds different from its true pronunciation. To me, using "sue-key" sounds
a lot better name than "ski" anyways, so I guess the most important part of a name is how it sounds, and not necessary if it's the true pronunciation.

[Harisenbon]

Hmm... I don't know what site in particular you used, but it would appear that the site is not well-researched.

I'm actually really curious about that site as well.
I wonder how these places come up with names like that?

Also, TofuGoddess, you should keep in mind that a name can have multiple meanings depending on the Kanji used.
For example, the name Yumi can mean:
裕美 Rich and beautiful
由美 Free and Beautiful
友美 Friendly and Beautiful

[tofugoddess79]

Thank you for all of your replies. I do take into account all of them. Like I said in my ealier posting...I looked at as many websites as I could find for Japanese baby names...probably for about 5 days straight..so my kitten didnt have a name for about a week..lol, and I had a list of about 20 possible names, but my boyfriend liked Suki best. I actually liked Koneko and Keiko, but, we went with Suki...and we pronounce it as Soo-Key. It sounds better to us.
We are still just wanting to learn Japanese and only know a few words and phrases, so I'm sure it won't bother us until maybe we know alot more about proper pronunciation and the Kanji and Hiragana. I really did stress myself over trying to get the perfect pronunciation and the best name with the perfect meaning, but now I am just happy we both agreed on a good name that the kitten seems to respond to. Thanks alot for your time guys!

[AJBryant]

Hmm... I don't know what site in particular you used, but it would appear that the site is not well-researched.

As one who has played with onomastics, I *hate* those "name your baby" websites and books. They are invariably full of material that is (to be charitable) mistaken -- bogus and totally made up or false on many cases, and on others so badly researched and presented they are no better than nothing. And since so many of them plagiarize from each other, it's one big bogus crapfest.

But they still sell, or are used, by people who just don't know better.

Sad, really.


Tony

[Mike Cash]

I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the conflicting statements of wanting to be sure you got the pronunciation right and then saying you've decided to go ahead and mispronounce it anyway.

It won't really matter much, though, for two reasons:

1. The cat will probably far outlive your interest in learning Japanese
2. Cats tend not to come when you call them anyway

[phreadom]

I couldn't help it... I LOL'ed.

[tofugoddess79]

I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the conflicting statements of wanting to be sure you got the pronunciation right and then saying you've decided to go ahead and mispronounce it anyway.

It won't really matter much, though, for two reasons:

1. The cat will probably far outlive your interest in learning Japanese
2. Cats tend not to come when you call them anyway

To answer why I sound "conflicting"...frustration. I seriously put alot of effort into trying to find what I was looking for, hence, why I finally came to this website to ask for help. After several days of looking and not agreeing on names and not finding what I wanted, my boyfriend and I finally settled on what sounded good to us over what was "proper". If we were enrolled in classes currently, or were of Japanese decent or this was for a baby and not a kitten, maybe it would be more important. As for our interest in the language, that won't be going anywhere. But the kitten needed a name before it got too old, and I had to make vet appts.
Satisfactory answer?