Mika's Pile of Anime - Information: Japanese Name Endings

Information: Japanese Name Endings

This is an alphabetical listing of all the Japanese name endings (or titles) Mika knows, and her descriptions of them! Oftentimes, titles in Japanese are not directly translatable to English, so all of these will have at least a small blurb about them to help you fully understand their meanings. If there is a title you wish to know about and it is not listed here, feel free to ~[Contact me]~ about it ^^

chan	Chan is a title given to females in many situations, and young children of both sexes. In many translations, it is equated to "little so-and-so", but I don't think that is quite right. Female friends can call each other chan, males can call female peers chan, older people can call much younger people chan, so it is much deeper than "little". (In One Piece, Sanji uses a modification of chan: "chwan".)
dono	While most other Japanese name endings are focused on showing your subordination to or your authority over someone (basically, your place in society), dono is more about being respectful. Two people can call each other dono because it doesn't place so much emphasis on one's 'rank'. Nowadays, dono is usually only used to address someone on an envelope; it is not heard in everyday speech.
kun	This title is generally used to speak to a male peer or a male younger than you. If you are speaking to a peer, you would have to be either very bold or aquainted with the person before calling them kun. For younger people, you could call them kun right from the start. Kun isn't only for boys, however, as you could address a female subordinate at work with kun (though the job would usually be a male-dominated field, so it would be like she was "one of the boys", so to speak).
oneechan (oneesan) (oneesama) (neechan) etc.	When used as a title, oneechan can be used to address one's own older sister or it can be used to address a young female (older than or peer to yourself) whom you don't know. This is a very open title, and you should listen to how it is used in anime if you want to get a better understanding (I don't want to write a novel here!). As you can see, the level of resepct you give can be changed by changing the ending after onee.
oniichan (oniisan) (oniisama) (niichan) etc.	This is the same as oneechan, only applied to elder brothers or young males older than or peer to yourself.
senpai	Senpai is a title given to those who literally hold a higher level than you, like someone in a higher grade in school or your supervisor at work. Often they are mentors to the lower leveled person.
sama	This is a very reverent title, and you would attach it to beings that are much higher in status to you. For instance, when speaking of Shinto gods, you would say "kami-sama", or another example is when speaking of someone with a much higher level of education than you (say, a doctorate degree). But it's not completely cut-and-dry; you can also attach sama to the name of someone you really adore or respect (like your favorite voice actor!). When anime characters call themselves sama, they are being EXTREMELY conceited. That is something that is only seen in anime, so never address yourself as sama unless you want to offend everyone around you...
san	This is the most basic title in Japan, and is fairly equivalent to English's Mr. or Mrs. You would never attach san to your own name however, because san indicates your respect to another. (In One Piece, Sanji uses a modfication of san: "swan".)

This page last updated March 12, 2006.