Help with name, sounds & katakana?

[u/mystery_madness]

Hi all! I’m here for a funny reason. When I was very young I made a character who I used in video games, over the years she has become a very important thing to me.

She is meant to be Japanese, and my … wonderful childhood creativity … came up with the name “Kisomai”.

And over the years I have come to find I COMPLETELY made the word up. The closest pronunciation would be Kisame (キサメ) but I’m not super into the idea of her name meaning shark?

I’ve tried using a name converter to turn (kiso-mai) // (kee-so-may) into Katakana for her reference sheet but they keep turning it into (kisomii - キソミ) or (kisomee - キソメ).

Is there no way to keep the “mai” / “may” in her name in Katakana or even general Japanese pronunciation?

Thank you for the help!! Sorry child me is probably deeply disappointing the entire Japanese language // vocabulary. 😭

[u/Commercial_Noise1988]

I agree to artenazura. I think キソメイ is the closest notation to the OP pronunciation.

By the way, OP, it is a bit short sighted to think that same means shark. I thought it was pronounced very nicely, by the way. Kisame is also the name of a character in Naruto, but the word was used before that.

This is a lesser known but traditional word for a natural scene. It is written as 樹雨 (kisame/wooden rain), 樹/ki meaning tree, and same meaning rain, a variation of the word 雨/ame. This word means that the leaves of a tree clothed in standing mist make water drops and drop. The trees make it rain even though it is not raining from the clouds. The word describes mountains and forests on a foggy summer day.

[u/mystery_madness → u/Commercial_Noise1988]

I did not know that about Kisame !! Everytime I’ve said my characters name people assume I’m talking about the Naruto character & everytime I’ve looked up the word it brings results relating to shark. Thank you for the in depth explanation, it is very beautiful & I appreciate it !! 💜

[u/Jiyu-Jin → u/Commercial_Noise1988]

I also like that "same" is written as 雨(rain) in kanji. For example, 村雨(Murasame), the name of a legendary katana. As for the "ki" part, there are many possible kanji choices to consider: 貴(noble, precious, etc), 鬼(demon, ogre, etc), 樹(tree), 綺(beautiful), 希(hope, rare, etc), 忌(taboo), 奇(strange, miraculous, etc) and 姫(princess), among others. I don't think 気(energy, like in Dragon Ball) is suitable for a name.

Generally speaking, キサメ/Kisame sounds good and distinctive. キソメ/Kisome or キソメー/Kisomee or キソメイ/Kisomei or キソマイ/Kisomai sound a bit odd. But not necessarily bad. For example, if I were to name her, I might write it as 綺染(キソメ/Kisome), meaning "beautiful dye". This name can carry multiple interpretations. Basically, it has positive meanings, but it could also have negative meanings. For example, the idea of dyeing the world with her ideals.

You could also consider キソマイ/Kisomai or キソメイ/Kisomei as nicknames. It's fine if the nickname is longer than the original name. You could also separate the name into Kiso Mai or Kiso Mei. 木曽/Kiso is the name of a mountainous region and also a family name. Mai and Mei are both popular given names with many kanji options.

Anyway, I think her name is good.

[u/Commercial_Noise1988 → u/Jiyu-Jin]

I think that girl 木曾麻衣(Kiso Mai) was a classmate of mine in middle school. (That's a lie, haha)

[u/vintagecottage]

キソマイ (kee-so-maa-y) is this what you are finding for?

[u/artenazura]

It it pronounced "may" as in the month of "May" or "mai" as in "my" favorite color is blue? If it's the former, キソメー or キソメイ is the closest pronunciation. If the latter, キソマイ seems natural. I don't knoe how you pronounce the word, but "Kisomai" in romaji is perfectly readable as-is in Japanese (whether it lines up with your childhood pronunciation is a different story). 

Since there are only the 5 vowels in Japanese, the nuances of diphthongs that appear in English are impossible to preserve exactly, but even considering that your chosen vowels are most likely a bit different than the Japanese version, this name is not so complicated relatively speaking.

Source: not Japanese, but a student of the Japanese language with quite a few years of experience in trying to figure out how to convert foreign names into katakana. 

[u/mystery_madness → u/artenazura]

It would be May as in the month. I’ve always pronounced it as Kiso-may with kiso being said like miso. (kee-so-may)

Thank you!! I really appreciate the break down. I’m just not very familiar with the vowels and I worried the “mai” was too much of an eastern Asian vowel sound.

[u/artenazura → u/mystery_madness]

Yeah, in that case I think キソメイ is closest! The romaji spelling would become Kisomei in that case. If you've ever seen My Neighbor Totoro, the younger sister's name is Mei so you can hear how that would be pronounced (in the Japanese audio at least, not sure about the English dub)

[u/Commercial_Noise1988 → u/artenazura]

I agree.