A while back I gave the entire Ichi Nen Sei English nicknames. At first I wanted to give them a variety of names drawn from different groups- theme it, if you will. 1-1 was going to be popular 50's England names, 1-2 My Heros' Names, 1-3 Sports stars.... but I soon realised that was a bad idea.
At 13 I was re-christened Michel by Madame Maynard (was it?), much to the hilarity of the rest of the class, who didn't have a girl's French name. And, oh, how it still stings to this day! What if the little tykes, god forbid, actually make it outside of the prefecture, out of the country even, nay dare speak it, will it, could such a thing ever happen? What if they did, and took the name I gave them, a Cuthbert or a Rio, (equally ridiculous) and used it as an alter-ego, a substitute name like Prakit Sanguanpiyapand from Thailand did at my secondary school, Prakit, known as Jim to everybody in his year?
So I played it simple, played it straight. Akiba Yuusuke became Ben (Takuya called him BIG! Ben after I put pictures up of his illustrious namesake; Ben chased him round the room). Unno Riho became Leanne. I ran in to difficulties with Oyama Momoka and Oyama Momoko, respectively solved Olivia and Molly. Occasionally I had to fit two of the little smurfs with the same name, made unique only through spelling: Ota Kenichi is Kenny...Togashi Kensuke is Kenni. But they both really are Kennys, so I had to do it.
1 hundred and some 17 names later, nameplates and all in different colours according to the houses of Hogwarts (that flew over their heads) and the weirdest thing is I found it easier to remember two names than I did one. Jimbo Ryo-kun really does look like a Ryan, and once Ryan has hit me, Ryo isn't so far away. And as for little Tucker... well, who wouldn't see the resemblance with Kusakai Tomohiko??
No comments:
Post a Comment