In my hometown, Bastos, which is the most Japanese of Brazil's cities, women up to my age group were educated to leave their family surname and adopt their husband's surname when they got married. I also accepted this naturally. I remember parents cried when their daughter got married and celebrated when their son got married.
In the past, in the case of an only child, parents insisted on registering their first grandchildren with the family surname and not with the child's father's surname, or invited the son-in-law to adopt his wife's surname.
My maternal grandmother was an only child, so she gave her maiden name to her first two children, who were my mother and my uncle. My grandfather did not accept the situation and did not treat it like other children; He didn't allow her to study, leaving her to look after her younger siblings while the other siblings went to school.
Nowadays, couples adopt both their surnames, or the woman refuses to stop using her maiden name.
I have two daughters: the firstborn took her surname and added her husband's, making TAKADA ITANO. The second daughter also added her husband's surname to hers and it became TAKADA NOMURA, but for her children she added her surname and her husband's two surnames, respectively those of his mother and father and became TAKADA HIGA NOMURA.
As for the Japanese names of my four children, I was fortunate to choose the ideograms.
The firstborn was given the name MARY, at the suggestion of a deputy who said it was the most beautiful name, for an intelligent person, which happened to be his wife's name. So I researched the ideograms ( kanji ) that would fit this name of foreign origin. Thus: MA = MEI= 明るい ( akarui ) = bright = cheerful, happy. RY= LAUGHED = 理想 = ideal = cheerful, happy.明理 meaning “cheerful person and idealized by everyone”, “ideal”.
The second daughter was named MAYUMI, at the suggestion of a Japanese executive. Being MA = MAKOTO 真 = truth = truth. YU = 由 = relation = relation. MI 美しい= beautiful, beautiful.真由美 meaning “beautiful and true person”.
The firstborn was named NORIYUKI: NORI 登る( noboru ) = climate = rise. YUKI 幸( sachi, koufuku, kou un ) = happinness, happiness.登幸 so that he can rise, succeed and be very happy.
The fourth son was TADAO: TADA 忠実 ( chuujitsu ) = honesty, royalty = honesty, loyalty, O 雄 ( o ) = male = man. As it was a risky pregnancy, and I
I cried a lot during this pregnancy and I wished he was a correct man with a capital H. His name in Portuguese is Leonel, which comes from “lion”, king of the forest.
My first grandson was born in the USA and my daughter gave the American name THOMAS and also researched which ideograms would be adapted for reading in
Japanese. It ended up like this: THO=TOMI 富 ( yutakana koto ) = wealth = wealth, prosperity, MAS=MASARU 勝る・勝れる ( masaru, sugureru ). My daughter chose this ideogram, although I chose another 優る・優れる ( masaru, sugureru ). Both meaning surpass = surpass.
With these ideograms, my daughter deduced that it could mean “victory”, as she had had a risky pregnancy, which caused her a lot of apprehension, especially living abroad. And Thomas was born, certainly a victorious boy.
© 2014 Rosa Tomeno Takada
