67913
So, I am writing a story where the MC, while native born in Japan, has a
foreign mother and surname, which is Tusinachi.  
I understand that typically this would make his surname in Katakana, but I
couldn't help but see if there was a way to make his last name make any sense
in Kanji. After playing around a bit on romajidesu, I came up with the
following translation(?):

```

        [痛死名地]{つ し な ち}
    
```

which translates (at least according to google) to Painful Death Place

Jisho lists the traditional reading of 痛死名地 as いたし なち (itashi-mei chi). Would
tsushinachi be an appropriate reading of the name and translation or should I
just stick with the katakana reading of the name ツシナチ?

I'm a beginner at learning Japanese, but I've been writing this character for
the last decade or so, and it would be really cool if this works (It would
make him much more intimidating).
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-30T22:21:54.803
67908
2019-05-01T05:17:52.087
2019-04-30T22:40:12.690
33894
33894
question
translation names multiple-readings
Would Painful Death Place be an appropriate translation for 痛死名地
Sticking to katakana is the safest way. Don't use kanji unless you really know
what you're doing.

What you're doing is essentially [ateji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateji).
Technically speaking, it works by assigning similar-sounding kanji to foreign
sounds and **declaring** "the official kanji for Tusinachi is 痛死名地!", for
example. That said, speakers of modern Japanese stopped this habit long ago.
Today, foreign (non-east-Asian) names are always written in katakana. By
today's standards, I would say assigning kanji is nothing more than a peculiar
wordplay liked by some beginner learners.

痛死名地 are unlikely to be read "correctly" by native Japanese speakers. Perhaps
most people will first try to read 痛死名地 as ツウシメイチ rather than ツシナチ. As you
know, many kanji have more than one reading, and you usually cannot determine
the reading of an unfamiliar kanji combination in one way. Dictionaries and
Google Translate know the readings of lots of existing words, but they are
horribly bad at guessing the reading and the meaning of a made-up word like
痛死名地. However, this isn't a severe blocker if you really want to use 痛死名地. You
are the author, and you can always tell your readers the "correct" reading.
There are [many native kanji surnames that are hard to
read](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name#Difficulty_of_reading_names),
after all.

Finally, even if we accept the use of ateji, why did you pick these characters
to represent the sound of Tusinachi? 痛 on its own indeed means "pain" and 死
indeed means "death". Generally speaking, it's not something you want in a
person name. You could have chosen a safer kanji like 津 or 都 to represent
"tu".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T05:17:52.087
67913
2019-05-01T05:17:52.087
5010
67908
answer