Writings of the name "kohaku".

Hello, everyone.

I come bearing a request for some help considering the kanji/katakana elements used in the name "Kohaku".

I'm afraid to admit I'm very inexperienced with Japanese reading and writing, but from what I've read here and there, I can conclude that names in Japanese can be written in a variety of different characters to give them a different meaning.

The symbols used for the name/word "Kohaku", 'amber', are "ko" representing 'aka' or 'red' and "haku" derived from 'shiro', or 'white'.

I have, however, set out to give a different meaning to the individual characters of "kohaku", namely by joining the kanji "ko" for 'child'in stead of 'red', but retaining the character "haku" as 'shiro' so that the name may bear a meaning resembling 'white child'.

Would こ白 be a suitable way to write this name, considering こ should be an on-reading and 白 is a kun-reading?

Or if not, is there a character "ko" that means 'child' in kun-reading, or am I completely misunderstanding?

I can conclude that names in Japanese can be written in a variety of different characters to give them a different meaning.

You have it halfway right, halfway wrong :) 琥珀 is THE kanji writing for the word "kohaku," meaning, amber. If you want the meaning "amber," that is the only way to write it in kanji. Of course, to represent the reading, you can write it in hiragana, which would be こはく, which is simply the sounds "ko-ha-ku" (hiragana are phonetic writing).

To give you the kanji individually:
琥 = the left part mens gem, the right side means tiger. A kanji meaning a gem carved in the shape of a tiger
珀 = the left part means gem, the right side means white. But the kanji itself does not mean "white."

If you change either of the kanji, you no longer have the word "amber." And there is no word that goes "kohaku" in Japanese that means "white child."

I don't know exactly what you are trying to do - do you want to create a completely new name that (in kanji) means "white child," or do you want to keep the sounds "kohaku" for some reason? (Kohaku is not a person's name in Japanese though...)

こ白 does not make sense at all, if you wrote 子白 that would only mean "child white," not "white child," and if you turned it around and wrote 白子, that means something completely different in Japanese that I would not recommend it as a person's name.

How come you would like to transrate Kohaku word into Kanji?

虎白(white tiger)
湖白(white lake)
紅白(red and white) We pronunce it "Kouhaku", but we can read like "Kohaku" if it is person's name.
煌珀(bright bead)
心花咲(flowers in your heart)

etc etc

Haha, that was me just theorizing on how it could possibly be written without enough thorough kanji knowledge to decide whether it would work or not. =)

I really like the sound of 'Kohaku', even though it's not officially a name, so I went from what I know in spoken Japanese that 'haku' can mean 'white', 'innocent', and 'ko' can mean 'child'.

Regardless, I'm glad the matter is cleared up, and thanks for the beautiful suggestions!

(Also, I just noticed I accidentally got confused and switched around the on- and kun-readings for each kanji in the description, haha.)