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Help me get a kanji tattoo

Erik0203

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20 Aug 2016
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Hi
So I recently became a daddy :D and I want a kanji tattoo with the babys name (Laura) and with a nice meaning. I did some research and found this:

Tattoo2_zpszfbvojjb.png


Apparently it reads (top to bottom) Laura and means little companion? Can anyone confirm?

Thanks in advance
 
It can be read as "rora", but "ryora" is more common. Also, the meaning is "friend + sea snail/turban shell or screw-like shape".
 
It can be read as "rora", but "ryora" is more common. Also, the meaning is "friend + sea snail/turban shell or screw-like shape".
Thanks for the reply. 'Friend' is kind of cool. Which sign is it? The top one or the bottom? Can't the signs have multiple meanings?
 
So I think this is the snail you mention (the originals I posted are calligraphic I think).
2556.png

This means small, edible, helical fresh-water mollusk according to the website I found it on. So saying it means 'small' isn't too far off, right?
 
So I think this is the snail you mention (the originals I posted are calligraphic I think).
2556.png

This means small, edible, helical fresh-water mollusk according to the website I found it on. So saying it means 'small' isn't too far off, right?

Yes. It is.
 
Which sign is it?
The upper one, as you guessed.

Can't the signs have multiple meanings?
As for those two kanji, no.
侶 - Wiktionary
螺 - Wiktionary

This means small, edible, helical fresh-water mollusk according to the website I found it on. So saying it means 'small' isn't too far off, right?
What you are saying is just like "Mouse" means "little rat", so it must be able to mean "little". The lower kanji doesn't refer to only small spiral shells, in the first place.
 
So the first kanji means 'friend' and I'm happy with that.

But the second one is still a problem. I need the sound 'ra' with a nice meaning.

All your help is greatly appreciated.
 
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Tattoo3_zpsc2gnlaup.png


Could I use this? It should read 'rora' (Laura) and mean 'young girl' and 'good'. Seems fitting for my baby girl (on my arm ofcourse).
 
Where did you get the reading of the upper kanji "ro"? It doesn't have such reading.
娘 - Wiktionary

The reading "ra" for the lower kanji indeed exists, but it's used only in a specific compound word 野良 "nora". The most common reading is "ryō".
 
Because I want it to read out as 'Laura' and have a special meaning.

The fact it's your daughter's name isn't already the most special meaning anything could possibly have for you? It has to be in trendy characters in a language you can't read, know nothing about, and have zero connection to? Everybody and his cross-eyed cousin has a kanji tattoo these days. If you want to be "special" get it done in Korean or Sanskrit or Cyrillic

Quite frankly, I think you insult your daughter if you don't get it as "Laura"..
 
To me a tattoo needs to have a story behind it and kanji has a deeper meaning/story. But it isn't working out. What I don't get is that I find things on different websites which are wrong according to the people here :-( Yes, I know nothing about Kanji but that's why I asked help. I wanted Kanji signs that spell her name (Laura) and mean something (Little young girl or little friend or something nice). I guess I have to forget it and find something else I'm happy with.
 
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To me a tattoo needs to have a story behind it and kanji has a deeper meaning/story. But it isn't working out. What I don't get is that I find things on different websites which are wrong according to the people here :-( Yes, I know nothing about Kanji but that's why I asked help. I wanted Kanji signs that spell her name (Laura) and mean something (Little young girl or little friend or something nice). I guess I have to forget it and find something else I'm happy with.

The thing that you may not have realised is that Western names are not usually written in kanji, therefore there is no "correct" way to write Laura in kanji. The way to write Laura in Japanese is usually ラウラ or ローラ, in another script that Japanese uses for foreign words. What those websites do is match random kanji to the pronunciation of the name, for people who don't speak Japanese but want calligraphy or a tattoo of their name that looks pretty. From your results it seems like they don't even do that very well.

If you want to use Chinese characters it would make marginally more sense to write the name in Chinese. They might write Laura as 蘿拉 or 勞拉 (lao la), however I doubt either of those meanings is appealing to you.

I would recommend you just get the name "Laura" with a picture or design around it that represents the meaning that you want.
 
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I would recommend you just get the name "Laura" with a picture or design around it that represents the meaning that you want.

Yeah, you're probably right.

I'm going for a lion (her starsign) representing courage and power which she will need growing up in this world.
 
Why not a lioness while you're at it?
I was thinking about that. The drawing I chose is kind of tribal and it is not sure wheter the lion is male or female.

Anyway, I thank you all for your help. I'm not using kanji, it is way too hard.
 
Plus, 曽良 Sora ; a famous pupil of 松尾芭蕉, 吉良上野介 Kira Kōzuke no suke ; the villain in 忠臣蔵, or 富良野市 Furano City, Hokkaido, etc. etc., if we can count proper nouns.
 
Plus, 曽良 Sora ; a famous pupil of 松尾芭蕉, 吉良上野介 Kira Kōzuke no suke ; the villain in 忠臣蔵, or 富良野市 Furano City, Hokkaido, etc. etc., if we can count proper nouns.

I think counting proper nouns is appropriate, given that Laura is one, as well.
 
Yeah, the reading "ra" is mostly for 名のり (the reading(s) accepted only in names) in the first place.
 
By the way, the ラ reading of 良 is more than just a run-of-the-mill 名のり reading. In older spoken Japanese, the 呉音 reading of 良 was ラウ (today it is ロウ), and this character was often borrowed to represent the ラ sound in Japanese in early Japanese writing. In fact, the 良 character served as the origin of both hiragana ら and katakana ラ.
 
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