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Moving to Japan, I need help with an Ateji name!

suriyo

Registered
19 Oct 2014
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みんなさんこんいちは!
I am going to be moving to Japan soon and, I think that, apart from using katakana, using Ateji could be a good choice for meeting people and introducing myself. My name is Leire, pronounced the Spanish way (think Lay-reh), and the katakana is レイレ。Though Ateji is more phonetic than meaningful, I thought that maybe posting the meaning of my name could help, too:
[ syll.lei-re, le-ire ] The baby girl name Leire is pronounced as L-IHR- †. Leire is largely used in theSpanish language and its origin is Basque. The first name is derived from the name of the Monastery of San Salvador of Leyre in Spain, which derived its name from the Basque element 'legor' (meaning shed, hostel), probably in reference to the fact that monasteries often provided shelter for pilgrims and travellers.
Thank you for any help and suggestions I receive!
(p.s. I've already sort of come up with some, such as 零列 or even changing it up a bit with 礼子, reading Reiko.)
 
How about 礼麗 (れいれい) or 麗々 ?

I don't know how effective it will be in helping you meet people. In your case, however, your name actually works well with some nice kanji. Maybe sounds a bit like a Maiko, but it has a certain charm.
 
Japanese people are quite accustomed to foreigners' names being in katakana. The lack of kanji doesn't throw them. The presence of kanji just makes them think you're somewhere on a continuum between silly and weird.

It's harmless, though, and practically everybody either does it or at least thinks about it. Have fun with it. Just don't think that it is going to have any practical value or facilitate your interactions in any way...it won't.
 
Thank you all for your replies.
Jaja, I've actually kind of changed my mind a bit! The reason I suddenly panicked about having an Ateji was because a Japanese friend of mine had told me about a (foreign) coworker of hers who was rejected by a job without even being interviewed because of her name, which was written in katakana. I was worried, but thank you all anyways for taking the time to comment.
Apologies for wasting time!
 
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