Name pronounciation

Hi so I saw a similar post from 2011 asking for help with name pronunciation/romaji of a Chinese-to-Kanji name, and I was wondering if anyone can help me out here.

My Chinese name is 嘉麗, which I know "technically" is "karei" but also, as my fellow poster previously pointed out, it's also the romaji for a flat type of fish. So I was wondering if Karei is a "normal" Japanese female name, or if there was any alternative pronunciations for this kanji name to "normalize" this name to a somewhat local name.

TL;DR: Is Karei an actual female Japanese name or am I making names up. Thanks!

My answer is, you don't have to care.
Yes, it's a fish name.
But there are many other words that have sound "Karei" like 華麗(gorgeous), 加齢(aging), 家令(servant), カレー(curry).
It's a waste of time to stick to one of them.

「My Chinese name is 嘉麗, which I know "technically" is "karei"」

By "technically," you mean that the kanji 嘉 is read as "ka" in Japanese, and 麗 is read as "rei," right? While that may be true from a purely academic/linguistics standpoint for those individual kanji, that's not how people's names work in Japan.

In Japan, you would write your name in kanji the same way, 嘉麗. It's pronunciation, however, would not change from whatever it is in Chinese.

For example, at one of my previous jobs here in Japan, I had several coworkers who were immigrants from China. Some of them had the family name Wang, which is written in kanji as 王. However, we didn't use the Japanese reading for 王 and call them "O-san." We just called them "Wang-san."

Think of it this way: both English and Spanish use the same alphabet. However, if a Mexican man named Juan comes to the U.S. or U.K., the pronunciation of his name doesn't change, even if those same letters are usually pronounced differently in Spanish and English. It would be weird and confusing for him to tell people to call him "Jew-an."

「 Is Karei an actual female Japanese name?」
Nope, it's not. So when people see your name written in kanji as 嘉麗, they'll know it's a Chinese name. They might, as a wild guess, pronounce it was "Karei," but it's more likely that they'll ask you how it should be pronounced.

Karei (カレイ) is the on-yomi (音読み) pronunciation for 嘉麗. It's not a Japanese sounding name, but personally it's not a bad sounding name. Because its the same pronunciation as 華麗.

If you want to be called closer to Chinese (Mandarin) pronunciation, it would be ジャリー (Jya Rii). It, too, is not a Japanese sounding name. Note that it kind of sounds close to ジャリ (砂利, Jya Ri), which means gravel.

It is your name and you should decide how you want to be called. Personally, I'd rather be mistaken for a fish than a gravel.

Thanks! What about reversing the name to 麗嘉？
Sorry if this is quite annoying ahaha.

Reika (レイカ, 麗嘉) does sound like a Japanese (woman's) name.

It does sound like a more normal name but - in my view at least - simply adds an extra layer of confusion.

Yes, using the original writing 嘉麗 and changing the reading to however your name is said in Chinese (as far as the Japanese language will allow) appears counterintuitive but, as mentioned above, is actually done by Chinese people in Japan.

However...

Reversing the characters to 麗嘉 and using a reading that sounds better to your ear means you are using a different writing to what your name actually is, presumably the name which appears on all your official documents, and also means you are changing the reading to something that is probably completely different to how your name actually sounds.

All of the answers you are looking for are actually in the very first question you asked:

Is Karei an actual female Japanese name or am I making names up. Thanks!

No, it’s not really a normal Japanese name, and that’s absolutely fine because you’re not Japanese. Making names up is actually what you appear to be attempting in your second post where you reversed the characters. That’s also absolutely fine as long as you understand that you don’t need a Japanese name. Foreign people have foreign names, it’s expected.

Sorry I should clarify, not official Chinese name, just wanted to see how to play with the characters given to me by Chinese side of the family. Haha sorry if I offended anyone, was just curious as to name compositions. Either way I never have gone by my Chinese name.

In whatever way you combine 嘉 and 麗, your name would not look like a Japanese female's. It's obviously Chinese. Regardless, it looks beautiful, at least to me and probably to most Japanese people.

As for the sound, the first word that came to my mind when I saw "Karei" was 華麗 (brilliance, flamboyance, floweriness, gorgeousness), and "Reika" is also nice.

Or if you're "playing" with your name anyway, why not shorten it to just 麗 (Rei) which does sound like a unisex Japanese name, and still is beautiful.