Noble Heralds!

Greetings from Solveig!

The following name is problematic:

9: Yamamoto no Sadatāro Hikaru - New Name

Language (Japanese) most important.

Yamamoto - Surname. Nihon Zasuroko: An On-line Japanese Miscellany under the section "Japanese Names" <http://sengokudaimyo.com/miscellany/names>, cites Yamamoto in the table "Some surnames of families active prior to 1600".

Concerning Yamamoto

Yamamoto is a perfectly fine family name.

no - The same article cites no as analagous to the German "von" or the French "de"; thus, essentially meaning "of".

Concerning -no-

-no- is not actually a free form. It is associated with uji (which Yamamoto is not) or with territories (which yamamoto is not) or as the first syllable of a title which Sadatarō is not. Basically, inserting -no- is at best presumptuous in this case.

Sadatāro Hikaru - The same article cites Sadatāro as a nanori comprised of Sada "righteous" or "establish" and tāro "first son". Barbara Norstrand (Solveig Throndardottir), Name Construction in Medieval Japan, p. 43, cites Sada "Correct Spirit/Composure/Modesty" as a moderately common descriptive kanji in nanori prior to 1600 C.E. Hikaru - Solveig, p. 42, cites Hikaru "Shining, Bright" as a simple masculine nanori dating to 1600.

Sadatāro and Hikaru are separate name elements and must be considered individually.

Concerning Sadatāro

1. The eldest son deuturotheme is actually -tarō not -tāro I do not know to what extent the College of Arms is now registering diacritical marks. It was not generally registering diacritical marks when I wrote NCMJ. Under the NCMJ romanization system the difference is between -tarou and taaro. The correct deutorotheme has a short a and a long o. This particular long o is written おう (ou) in Japanese.

2. Sada- appears to be a problematic prototheme for yobina names (-tarou marks the name element in question as a yobina). The optional protothemes for yobina appear to take ONYOMI readings and not KUNYOMI readings. For example, Gentarou is correct and Minamototarou is not correct.

3. The table on page 43 of NCMJ gives frequencies of commonly appearing kanji in nanori. However, -tāro marks this name element as a yobina and not a nanori.

Concerning Hikaru

I suppose that Hikaru is an acceptable single theme nanori. Most nanori have two themes. I made a mistake including Hikaru in NCMJ. It will most likely be deleted in future editions. Basically, Hikaru was not really the name of the Shining Genji.

Your Humble Servant
Solveig Throndardottir
Amateur Scholar