DOI: 10.5507/ff.23.24463476.13

TRADITION AND CHANGE: NAMING PRACTICES IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN AND TAIWAN

Ivona Barešová (A.), Petr Janda (A.)


This chapter explores commonalities in current naming practices in Japan and Taiwan, focusing on whether they have changed over the last two or three generations, and what general social trends they reflect. Based on data obtained from interviews with ten Japanese and ten Taiwanese parents, it provides a glimpse into the actual process of name selection in these two societies. The analysed examples of the naming process displayed some tendencies unique to each society (such as proceeding from the sound to the graphic form in Japan, and from the characters to the sound in Taiwan), and some tendencies common to both societies (such as weakening links among names within the extended family and increased parental control over the process). Similar tendencies in the naming process in Japan and Taiwan manifest similar general social trends in both societies, such as the growing independence of the nuclear family. 

pages: 393-411



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