#110 アメリカ人の名前の付け方ってどんな感じ？「〇〇Jr.」のイメージは？
A listener question about whether giving a child the "Jr." suffix in America is something to pity or be proud of kicked off a wide-ranging episode on naming culture. Hosts Yahagi and Ike (矢作とアイク) covered everything from Japan's Ichiro-Jiro-Saburo sequential naming tradition to the American habit of using month names like April, June, and February for girls — including Ike's real college acquaintance actually named February. The episode wrapped up with a debate over whether the name James should be pronounced "Jeemusu" or "Jeemuzu" in Japanese.
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What this episode answers
Why do Americans give their children the "Jr." suffix?
It is most often used by fathers who are either accomplished figures or who love their own name deeply — the feeling being "you can't call your kid Junior unless you're actually great yourself," with Ken Griffey Jr. cited as the classic example.
Does a naming system similar to Japan's Ichiro, Jiro, Saburo exist in other countries?
America has no equivalent tradition, according to Ike; a similar custom exists in India, where a father's name is used as the child's middle name, but Japan's numbered Ichiro-Jiro-Saburo system was completely new to Ike.
What month-based names are commonly given to children in America?
May, June, April, and August are the most common; February is a rare example, and Ike actually met a woman by that name in college.
Do people with month names actually share a birthday in that month?
Not necessarily — Ike noted that almost none of the Aprils he has known were actually born in April; the name is chosen for its sound and feel rather than its connection to a birth month.
Which is correct for James in Japanese — "Jeemusu" or "Jeemuzu"?
Either works: Ike prefers the "zu" ending, but Americans barely notice the difference — speaking slowly tends to produce "zu" while speaking quickly often sounds like "su," and people generally do not bother correcting it.
Why People Use "Jr." and the Cultural Background
Listener W kicked things off with the question: in English-speaking countries, parents sometimes give a child the same name as themselves and call the child "Jr." — does that come across as sad, or as something to be proud of?
According to Ike, "Jr." in America carries a decidedly proud connotation rather than a pitying one. The feeling is that "people who add Jr. are either someone great or someone who really loves their own name." Baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. was offered as the textbook example. Yahagi (矢作) agreed: "You couldn't put Junior on your kid unless you were actually impressive."
Ike added a distinction worth noting: the naming idea of "son of so-and-so" is more common in Indian culture, where a father's name is often used as the child's middle name — a separate custom from the American Jr. tradition. After Jr., the line continues as The Third, The Fourth, The Fifth, though Ike noted that going that far is "ancient history" and rarely seen today.
Japan's Ichiro, Jiro, Saburo Naming System
The conversation shifted to whether other countries have anything like Japan's sequential naming practice. Yahagi explained that Japan had a system — which he cheerfully called "lazy" — of naming boys in birth order: Ichiro (一郎, first son), Jiro (二郎, second), Saburo (三郎, third), and so on, with names going as far as Rokuro (六郎, sixth son) being perfectly normal. Ike said he had never heard of anything like it in America and was genuinely surprised.
Month Names in America
Ike introduced one of the episode's most interesting threads: "In America, giving children the names of months is incredibly common." The names that come up most often are **May** (May), **June** (June), **April** (April), and **August** (August). He then shared a memorable personal story: a woman he knew in college was actually named **February**. He described her as strikingly beautiful, which meant everyone ended up calling her by her full name. He added that close friends would naturally shorten it to **Feb**.
Do Month-Named People Share That Birth Month?
Surprisingly, no — at least not reliably. Ike said that almost none of the Aprils he has known were actually born in April. Yahagi quipped, "At least be born in April," to which Ike replied that the name is chosen simply because the sound is cute. It works the same way for June: being named June does not mean you were born in June. Yahagi found the parallel to Japanese thinking immediately: it is like deciding to write a child's name as "Natsumi" (夏見) because you love the sound "Nacchan," regardless of whether summer has anything to do with it.
Yahagi also revealed that when his son Sakutaro was born — and really was born in August — he had actually considered naming him **Hachigatsu** (八月, "August" in Japanese). "I thought it sounded cool," he said, though he ultimately did not go through with it.
The James Pronunciation Debate: "Jeemusu" or "Jeemuzu"?
Listener KC asked whether James Brown and Metallica's James Hetfield should be rendered in Japanese as "Jeemusu" or "Jeemuzu." Ike declared himself firmly in the "zu" camp, but quickly added that Americans almost never think about the difference. Speaking slowly tends to produce the voiced "z" sound, while a faster delivery often comes out closer to "s." He compared it to the Japanese surname Yamazaki (山崎), which some people read as "Yamasaki" and others as "Yamazaki" — the person themselves might care, but no one around them typically corrects a mispronunciation. The conclusion: don't worry about it.
Takeaways
- In America, "Jr." is a mark of pride tied to a father's accomplishments or love of his own name, with Ken Griffey Jr. as the defining example.
- Month names like April, June, and May are popular American girls' names chosen for their sound, not because the child was born in that month.
- Both "Jeemusu" and "Jeemuzu" are fine for James in Japanese — Americans barely notice the distinction and rarely correct it.
This article is edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. It is not an official summary — please listen to the episode itself.