I see more clearly now about what you're trying to do, Jakku.
"As for "Japanese rather than Chinese", what I meant was I was looking for a character combination that would sound close to "Alex" when pronounced with Japanese sounds, rather than Chinese sounds"
I think Ύσχ is fine, except that (A) it's a bit tricky to read Ύ and χ that way and (B) because of the her name tends to be pronounced like "aleck-sue" and (C) from the characteristics of the letters (the way they are usually used as well as their meanings) you will imagine a male. Note that a girl can have a mannish name as long as she doesn't mind the image.
"For a native person, using katakana would seem absurd, wouldn't it? After all, if your name is "Takeshi Morikawa", for example, you'd want to use kanji. Not only because of tradition, or because that's how it's properly written, but also because kanji are simply more beautiful than kana. Wouldn't you agree?"
I don't agree at all. Takeshi is usually written in kanji simply because it is usually written in kanji, and that's what people expect. A great number of female names are written in kana from the beginning. Yayoi, Hana, Shiho...you name it. In the past katakana was used as a standard so these names were usually written in katakana. Today the standard is hiragana, so usually these names are officially registered and commonly written in hiragana.
In ancient Japan, males always wrote in kanji only and females always wrote in hiragana only. Because of this tradition, as well as the characteristics of the way they look (kanji is more complex and have many angles, while kana is more simple and round), even today, kana is thought to have a more femine feel while kanji has a more mannish feel. My grandmother even prefered to have her name always written in katakana, because she didn't like the kanji that was officially registered for her name. She said, "It looks like a man's name."
Some male names are also written in kana, and a lot of celebrities would even bother to use kana for their stage names. cϋg (Tomoroo Taguchi), former singer and now actor and popular narrator, with his first name in katakana being among the typical ones. I really love the balance of the six characters he uses.
So, back to your question, when a native Japanese sees names like Ύσχ or ηγυ and is told it's supposed to be read "Alex", (s)he will most likely think, "Well, her parents must have really been a foreign culture freak, or she is a foreign person who is a Japanese culture freak, and if she has ever lived in japan, she must have had a hard time writing all these four letters all the time." or would simply think, "Oh, so she's another gaijin-san who is in love with Japan and wants to have kanji items." which are neither negative impressions, but that's all there is to it. If it were in katakana, people would think nothing.
But it's cool to have a kanji hanko. If you show it to people, they would probably say "Hey, cool!" And I do like ηγυ much better. It's very orthodox. All letters except γ are very commonly used in female names, the top letter (and usually the top letter gives the biggest impression) is very commonly used to express the sound "A", all letters are commonly pronouced the way Jakku wishes to in this case: a-lei-ku-su. Also υ is a very happy character, and η because of its meaning looks very honorable.
Other options: If you prefer to make the "le" part sound more with a staccato (as in the σ) rather than "lei", my kanji dictionary gives me ρ as an option. ρ means "queue" and my dictionary says that therefore it has a meaning of "nakama (mates)". Also unless you particularly prefer to use the "nine" meaning of γ, how about letters like v (meaning "lengthly" and typically used to express the sound "ku" in a name), or to make it a bit romantic although unique, g can be read "ku" and means "crimson" which may suit a fancy-looking girl.
"The way I understand it, "seal script" is used instead of brush scripts because the mirror image is more or less the same as the regular image. This way, it can be painted (onto the stone) with the right hand without causing much distortion"
I do have one little brush script hanko, but I think the main reason for using seal script (or whatever you call it) is because (A) it stamps more clearly and (B) they last longer. Anyone who has used hanko on daily basis knows that it's really difficult to press a neat stamp without any of the parts being faded or blurred with too much ink. Also as you press them so many times over the years, any thinner part of the hanko tends to wear down.
On a related note, usually hanko have letters carved very close together, almost so that each letter touches the outline of another letter or the outline of the hanko. I don't know why, but at least it looks better that way.
|