38538
I have recently noticed that one of my coworkers writes his surname partly in
hiragana when writing by hand.

This strikes me as odd, because his surname doesn't have multiple readings (to
my knowledge) and is made of relatively simple kanji. He always writes it in
kanji when typing. (For reference, the name is 桑野 and he writes it as 桑の)

Is there any reason someone would do this, and is it common? Or is he just
being lazy?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-17T11:33:48.657
38526
2016-08-24T05:53:46.187
2016-08-17T12:30:12.083
1628
17544
question
kanji names hiragana
Why do some Japanese people write parts of their name in hiragana?
I guess your coworker uses _hiragana_ の simply because it is easier to write
and 野 is very common in surnames and the natural guess for の.¹

_Hiragana_ (or _katakana_ ) or variant _kanji_ may also be used in surnames to
simplify writing, such as 早せ川 (早瀬川) or 斎藤 (齋藤).

However, you wouldn't use shorthand in (formal) correspondence like emails,
etc.

* * *

¹ You can check the database of names in the _koseki_ register
[here](http://kosekimoji.moj.go.jp/kosekimojidb/mjko/PeopleSearch). These are
all characters read の:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hCriw.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hCriw.png)

The last four characters are _hentaigana_ of 乃, 能, 能, and 農, respectively.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-17T12:29:31.097
38527
2016-08-18T10:19:48.490
2016-08-18T10:19:48.490
1628
1628
38526
answer
This phenomenon mainly occurs in orthodox brand/shop names. Quite a few
traditional-style Japanese restaurants are officially named like もり川【かわ】 and
三【み】むら, even though 森【もり】 and 村【むら】 are not difficult kanji at all. I haven't
wondered why, but according to [this
question](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q11132074861)
and [this
question](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1279413222),
this tradition seems to have originated from the belief that even numbers
([especially four](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia#In_Japan)) are
unlucky because it can be easily divided into two. People today are no longer
that superstitious, and we can think of this simply as one of the common ways
to establish the visual identity of the shop. Today you can easily find two-
character, partly-hiragana restaurant names like 吉【よし】の. So the appearance of
桑の itself doesn't strike me as too weird to me.

When people write their signatures or initials by hand, many people try to
make them look unique so that it won't incidentally look similar to signatures
by others. I believe this is true among English speakers, too. In my office,
some of my colleagues have to write their names on paper more than 30 times a
day, and they have developed their own ways to write their surnames fast. Many
chose to write their names entirely in hiragana or katakana, and some created
almost unreadable signatures. I guess your coworker decided to use の as the
unique part of his signature. I wouldn't say it's very common, but it's
understandable.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-18T01:06:03.233
38538
2016-08-18T01:06:03.233
5010
38526
answer
I have experienced that with girls on language exchange sites or on facebook
also. The "official" reason can be that since they are interfacing themselves
with foreigners, they want to make their name easier to understand. This makes
sense also on facebook if they have some foreign friends that might understand
some Japanese but are not so familiar with kanji. Anyway I think this is an
excuse in general, the real reason being that writing your name in hiragana
gives you more distance from unknown people because you are keeping the kanji
of your name as a personal "secret" or as some information accessible just by
closer friends. Another concurring reason could be that some people are not
comfortable with kanji because they are a symbol of traditional Japanese
culture (an adult in general should write his name with kanji), so they want
to appear more young and somehow "rebellious" by writing their name in simple
hiragana. Some western people use fake names or altered versions of their
names as pseudonyms on facebook, I think that happens for similar reasons.
Anyway all these are just my personal speculations based on the gut feelings I
have had while meeting Japanese people, so please do not take them too much
conclusively and feel free to discuss. It would be interesting to ask to
Japanese people also why they do that, I never tried, but I would not take
their replies necessarily in a literal way. If you ask them why they are
wearing masks usually they will tell you that it is because they have a cold
or want to prevent a cold, but in general I think also that (again) this is
just a socially accepted way to put a barrier between themselves and other
people. Maybe also in an office environment the signature personalization
could be explained with these or similar arguments, I am not completely
satisfied with the explanation based on purely graphical reasons. But I do not
have any office experience in Japan nor am I seeking any ;)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-24T05:53:46.187
38672
2016-08-24T05:53:46.187
14038
38526
answer