Kinori and Rina, Names by Design
As I described before, Yuriko and I chose to pass on both our cultures to our children. Please see: American Jewpanese Family.
When it came to names for our kids, this combination gave us a wonderful, unique opportunity. Japanese and Hebrew have similar acoustic phonetics for many of their sound patterns. In other words, their syllables often consist of consonants followed by vowels and the vowels can be the same, simple, pure vowels. The goal we set out for ourselves was to give Kinori and then Rina a single name that works in Japanese, Hebrew and English. All grandparents and both parents were going to be happy with, and be able to pronounce, their names.
Kinori,כינורי and 暉徳. There were a number of names in the running, but Kinori won out. It's a modern Hebrew name that's found in Israel. It basically means "my violin" or "my harp". A kinor (כינור) is a violin in modern Hebrew and it's the harp that King David played. The Sea of Galilee is also called Lake Kinneret because of its shape like a harp. When you say "my violin" in Hebrew, you say "kinor sheli" (כינור שלי) that can be contracted into kinori (כינורי) and thus we get Kinori. But wait, there's more. While the sound kinori works in Japanese, it's not a boys name. But, it's permissible to create new names in Japanese. We do, however, need to decide how to write it. There are four alphabets in Japanese (romaji, katakana, hiragana and kanji), but the only one that provides meaning is kanji. So, we selected two kanji that can be read as "ki" and the second "nori" - 暉徳. These characters are quite old and the first doesn't appear as a candidate when typing Japanese. I can get the second by typing "toku" instead of its rare reading as "nori". 暉 is a really strong character - it's the combination of sun 日 and army 軍 - meaning "brilliant" with the color of the powerful meanings of these symbols in Japanese culture. 徳 on the other hand, means charity or tsedakah. Together, the name is a hope for great talent and brilliance and sharing it with others. A violin is a means to share one's talent with others, so we've come full circle. from Hebrew to Japanese and back. Boom!
Rina, רינה and 利奈. Rina continues the musical theme and means "joyful song" or just "joy" in Hebrew. It's a girl's name in both Hebrew and Japanese. It's such a cute sounding, short name, that also it is found as a girl's name in Hindi and other languages. The kanji selected are less about meaning as their significance in this name. The "ri" (利), meaning profit or benefit, is from Yuriko (由利子) - Yuriko passed one of her characters to her daughter. In Japan, men often pass on one of their characters to their sons. However, Yuriko is a Japanese woman in the US, so she can do as she pleases! The "na" (奈) is a challenge. There are very few kanji with the reading of "na" which are "positive" meanings. For both 暉徳 and
I'm very happy to include these names into the Rosnow legacy. I think they're almost as awesome as their owners. What's more, we've avoided something that always bugged me about my name. When I was a kid, I always felt a bit weird having two names: Harley and Chaim (חיים ). Who am I, Harley Rosnow or Chaim Rosnow? I just don't know who one of those guys is. Now my kids don't have that problem. :-)
Naming is central to the role of humans in creation in the Torah. Here's an article exploring the power of naming: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-power-of-a-name-the-power-of-naming/ in Judaism. I won't expound on this power from a religious perspective.
But, from a philosophical, existential and cognitive perspective, I can feel the power of naming every day. When I pick a word to refer to something in the world I make a choice. The chosen word is a tool which evokes a concept from my mind and my listener's mind as well as choice to ignore aspects of the object of my reference. For me, the act of naming is central to human existence and language. One person's "single parent" can be someone else's "welfare mother". The feelings, political agenda and call to action are all determined by the names we choose. These choices not only communicate today, but they create the future. Names have power.
When Kinori was born, Yuriko and I bought a book of Hebrew baby names and then looked for ones which overlap with Japanese. Last week, as we were cleaning our home to prepare for renovation and my move to Japan, I found that book along with the piece of paper with its list of names and notes! There were other candidate names for our Jewpanese kids: Malki, Adina, Naomi, Maya and others. OMG, I held the book and sheet with awe at the power of these choices!
When it came to names for our kids, this combination gave us a wonderful, unique opportunity. Japanese and Hebrew have similar acoustic phonetics for many of their sound patterns. In other words, their syllables often consist of consonants followed by vowels and the vowels can be the same, simple, pure vowels. The goal we set out for ourselves was to give Kinori and then Rina a single name that works in Japanese, Hebrew and English. All grandparents and both parents were going to be happy with, and be able to pronounce, their names.
Kinori,כינורי and 暉徳. There were a number of names in the running, but Kinori won out. It's a modern Hebrew name that's found in Israel. It basically means "my violin" or "my harp". A kinor (כינור) is a violin in modern Hebrew and it's the harp that King David played. The Sea of Galilee is also called Lake Kinneret because of its shape like a harp. When you say "my violin" in Hebrew, you say "kinor sheli" (כינור שלי) that can be contracted into kinori (כינורי) and thus we get Kinori. But wait, there's more. While the sound kinori works in Japanese, it's not a boys name. But, it's permissible to create new names in Japanese. We do, however, need to decide how to write it. There are four alphabets in Japanese (romaji, katakana, hiragana and kanji), but the only one that provides meaning is kanji. So, we selected two kanji that can be read as "ki" and the second "nori" - 暉徳. These characters are quite old and the first doesn't appear as a candidate when typing Japanese. I can get the second by typing "toku" instead of its rare reading as "nori". 暉 is a really strong character - it's the combination of sun 日 and army 軍 - meaning "brilliant" with the color of the powerful meanings of these symbols in Japanese culture. 徳 on the other hand, means charity or tsedakah. Together, the name is a hope for great talent and brilliance and sharing it with others. A violin is a means to share one's talent with others, so we've come full circle. from Hebrew to Japanese and back. Boom!
Rina, רינה and 利奈. Rina continues the musical theme and means "joyful song" or just "joy" in Hebrew. It's a girl's name in both Hebrew and Japanese. It's such a cute sounding, short name, that also it is found as a girl's name in Hindi and other languages. The kanji selected are less about meaning as their significance in this name. The "ri" (利), meaning profit or benefit, is from Yuriko (由利子) - Yuriko passed one of her characters to her daughter. In Japan, men often pass on one of their characters to their sons. However, Yuriko is a Japanese woman in the US, so she can do as she pleases! The "na" (奈) is a challenge. There are very few kanji with the reading of "na" which are "positive" meanings. For both 暉徳 and
I'm very happy to include these names into the Rosnow legacy. I think they're almost as awesome as their owners. What's more, we've avoided something that always bugged me about my name. When I was a kid, I always felt a bit weird having two names: Harley and Chaim (חיים ). Who am I, Harley Rosnow or Chaim Rosnow? I just don't know who one of those guys is. Now my kids don't have that problem. :-)
Naming is central to the role of humans in creation in the Torah. Here's an article exploring the power of naming: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-power-of-a-name-the-power-of-naming/ in Judaism. I won't expound on this power from a religious perspective.
But, from a philosophical, existential and cognitive perspective, I can feel the power of naming every day. When I pick a word to refer to something in the world I make a choice. The chosen word is a tool which evokes a concept from my mind and my listener's mind as well as choice to ignore aspects of the object of my reference. For me, the act of naming is central to human existence and language. One person's "single parent" can be someone else's "welfare mother". The feelings, political agenda and call to action are all determined by the names we choose. These choices not only communicate today, but they create the future. Names have power.
When Kinori was born, Yuriko and I bought a book of Hebrew baby names and then looked for ones which overlap with Japanese. Last week, as we were cleaning our home to prepare for renovation and my move to Japan, I found that book along with the piece of paper with its list of names and notes! There were other candidate names for our Jewpanese kids: Malki, Adina, Naomi, Maya and others. OMG, I held the book and sheet with awe at the power of these choices!
Thanks so much for this post. I am "Jewpanese" myself and came up with a few of the names you listed here that are found in Japanese and Hebrew. Can you share the rest of the names on your list?
ReplyDeleteAs fate would have it. Kinori married a beautiful, smart, kind, wonderful woman, Maya - one of the names from our list!
ReplyDelete