Like anyone, I’d like to know what my name would look like rendered into Japanese. Y’know, so that I’ll know to look out for it the next time I’m thumbing through an untranslated manga.

So I input my first name, and what’s the result?

Unfortunately your name is not in the database.

What indignity! I guess this means I don’t exist as far as Japanese is concerned. Screw you, Japan!

After my rage subsided, I read on:

However, it contains some names that might sound similar to yours. If your name is pronounced in the same way as any of the names shown below, it will be written in exactly the same way in Japanese.

Kosta
Cassidy
Kassidy

Since Cassidy, with or without a “K”, is a tad too sissy for my taste, I went with the Costa with a “K”. Here’s the result:

Nice, short and to the point. I can live with it.

The Kosta spelling is not at all out of line. Since Greek has a different alphabet than English, there’s some leeway when it comes to phonetic translation. That my name is spelled Costa and not Kosta is largely the result of my parents’ whim (although, from what I’ve seen, the “K” spelling is fairly rare in English, at least in the States). Other non-Western European names go through this transformation, particularly from Asian languages but also Eastern European languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet. The latter is most noticable in the sports world, especially the NHL, where you’ll see the same name spelled Dmitri, Demitry and Dimitri, for instance.

Of course, I could have circumvented this with the Japanese translator and used a couple of the alternate, Anglicized variants of my name. I tried them, and they both were in the database. I’m not going to divulge what they are; they’d make great aliases to use if I ever decide to take my act underground.

(Via The Goatbelt)