[ANSTHRLD] Help! I am SO totally clueless on Japanese Names

[Kathleen O'Brien]

>>  The desired name: <Yagyu Masamori Nobunagga>
>>  
>>  He does not care
what period this is for. His goal is to have the name as it
>>  has been
presented here.


The summary is that, the name in the form the submitter wants it, is not
registerable. 

Here's the explanation:

The most common three element structure we see in registrations of Japanese
names is:

	Surname + yobina + nanori

The yobina and nanori served two different purposes and are not
interchangable.


The information below is taked from Solveig Throndardottir's book _Name
construction in Medi{ae}val Japan_ (2004 edition).  [NCMJ]

NCMJ p. 26 lists different types of name elements and their use:

nanori - Official Name - Names used in proclamations and self introductions
yobina - Spoken Name - General use name other than the nanori.

Here's what NCMJ says about the three elements in his desired name:

Yagyuu (note the extra u) - dated to 1568 on p. 329 in the "Historical
Surnames" section. [NCMJ]

Masamori - there are two different instances of this name with two
different Kanji; both dated to 1600 on p. 340 in the "Historical Masculine
Nanori" section. [NCMJ]

Nobu'naga (note the accent mark and single g) - dated to 1332 on p. 350 in
the "Historical Masculine Nanori" section. [NCMJ]

Since <Masamori> and <Nobunaga> are both nanori, then the name in the form
he wants it is not registerable.

Here's the relevent precedent:

Submitted as Kimotsuki Yorimoto Takeo, both Yorimoto and Takeo were
documented as nanori. No documentation was presented and none was found to
support the use of two nanori in a Japanese name in period. As the
submitter allows any changes, we have dropped the second nanori in order to
register this name. [Kimotsuki Takeo, 05/2003 LoAR, A-Middle]

So, what's registerable?

This name is registerable using the construction:

	[surname] [nanori]

in the forms

	Yagyuu Masamori

or

	Yagyuu Nobunaga

If having three elements and a similar sound is more important to him, he
may be interested in:

Masatsugu - dated to 1568 p. 372 under the "Historical Masculine Yobina"
section. [NCMJ]

Using that element instead of <Masamori>, his name would be registerable as:

	Yagyuu Masatsugu Nobunaga
	
Hope this helps.  

Please post if you have any questions.

Mari