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ArchivesRe: I claim Naomi isn't Japanese
in reply to a message by Tbird
Up to a point I understand that this might be counter-intuitive. If a name is Hebrew, how can it be Japanese?
But if you think about it: In what kind of funny world would a name be "reserved" for all times by the first people that comes up with it? E.g. in the following way: Around the year 1000 AD the Japanese ask the world "We would like to coin a Japanese name called Naomi. Is this ok?" and then the Hebrew-speaking folks object and say "No, you can't, we have the exclusive rights to this name since 1000 BC"...
Anyway, of course there is a Japanese name Naomi, in a certain way even around a dozen such names because there are several kanji combinations in use for writing the Japanese Naomi, each with a different meaning.
The most frequent writing that I could find is:
直美
with the following two kanji:
直 straightaway; honesty; frankness; fix; repair
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=76f4
美 beauty; beautiful
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=7f8e
And the Japanese themselves seem to know quite well that the Hebrew Naomi and their Naomi are two different things because they don't use kanji to write the name of Naomi Campbell, but katakana:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ナオミ・キャンベル;
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
But if you think about it: In what kind of funny world would a name be "reserved" for all times by the first people that comes up with it? E.g. in the following way: Around the year 1000 AD the Japanese ask the world "We would like to coin a Japanese name called Naomi. Is this ok?" and then the Hebrew-speaking folks object and say "No, you can't, we have the exclusive rights to this name since 1000 BC"...
Anyway, of course there is a Japanese name Naomi, in a certain way even around a dozen such names because there are several kanji combinations in use for writing the Japanese Naomi, each with a different meaning.
The most frequent writing that I could find is:
直美
with the following two kanji:
直 straightaway; honesty; frankness; fix; repair
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=76f4
美 beauty; beautiful
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=7f8e
And the Japanese themselves seem to know quite well that the Hebrew Naomi and their Naomi are two different things because they don't use kanji to write the name of Naomi Campbell, but katakana:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ナオミ・キャンベル;
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
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