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Question to Teacher: What is the origin of なまえ?
Course 1 Pre-Lesson C: First Meeting (New Phrases)

yorkie

Post Date: 2008-09-22 13:46:49

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I have a question about the japanese for 'name'. I asked my japanese teacher the same question, but she didn't know the answer.

Is the similarity between the english 'name' and japanese 'namae' just coincidence or do they have a common history? I'm guessing if namae was from the english it would be written ナマエ rather than 名前.

Thanks for your help.

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JFZ_George

Post Date: 2008-10-08 06:09:19

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1997 Aug 25

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Interesting question, but I am pretty sure this is pure coincidence.

The Japanese romanization of the "name" is ネーム. I do think it certainly makes it easy to remember the Japanese word for NAMAE since it sort of looks like "name" but again I doubt there is any linkage.

Let's look at the kanji for なまえ.

名前 is comprised of 名(name) and 前(prior, before, in front of).
I am not sure of the significance of this, but when a kanji exists for a word in Japanese it is almost always not of foreign origin.

LiFulin

Post Date: 2009-03-09 04:30:41

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2008 Jul 06

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Actually it is both
The word 名 Ming in Chinese and Na in Japanese means name, fame reputation etc.
The word 前 Qian in Chinese and Mae in Japanese means in front of, before etc.
The word 名字 Mingzi in Chinese might be either your (given) name or full name.
The word 姓 Xing in Chinese means surname, family name.

The word 名前 Mingqian doesn't exsist in Chinese but in Japanese Namae means (given) name.
The word 名字 Myouji menas surname, family name in Japanese.
苗字 another way of writing Myouji in Japanese.
The word 姓 sei also means surname, family name.

In english we have a (fore)name (hence Fore Mae and Name Na in Japanese word order namae) and surname.
In Chinese and Japanese we have a family name and a given name.

The sound namae is pure coincidentle, the kanji Na could have been pronounced as hanasu and Mae as sakana making the Kanji namae pronounced as hanasusakana

Examples:

I am George Trombley.
My name is George Trombley.

Watashi wa Yamada Ichirou desu.
私は山田一郎です。
I am Ichirou Yamada.
Watashi no namae wa Yamada Ichrou to iimasu.
私の名前は山田一郎です。
My name is Ichirou Yamada. (When you give a general describtion of your name)
Yamada wa myouji de, Ichrou wa namae desu.
山田は名字で、一郎は名前です。
My surname is Yamada and my given name is Ichirou.

But when introducing yourself to others you say:
山田と申します。
Yamada to moushimasu.
My name ia Yamada./I am called Yamada.

我是李福林。
Wo shi Li Fulin.
I am Li Fulin.
我名字叫李福林。
Wo mingzi jiao Li Fulin.
My name is Li Fulin.
我姓李，名字叫李福林。
My surame is Li and my given name is Fulin.

我叫李福林。
Wo jiao Li Fulin.
My name is Li Fulin./I am called Li Fulin.

JFZ_George

Post Date: 2009-03-10 06:54:53

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1997 Aug 25

Questions: 21
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Nice well written answer LiFulin!