A challenge from one bored person to one with too much time
I got a challenge tonight (well last night if you want to be anal about time slots and all that…) Kim was translating names into Japanese Romaji. One of the names she did happened to be mine and I made mention that I thought there might be a closer translation. So Kim told me to figure it out myself… Well this is what I came up with.
Starting from the meaning of my name (Derek Stafford) as found at behindthename.com
Derek:
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DER-ik
From a Low German form of THEODORIC. It was imported to England from the Low Countries in the 15th century.
THEODORIC
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Ancient Germanic
Pronounced: thee-AHD-ə-rik (English)
Germanic name meaning “ruler of the people”, derived from the elements þeud “people” and ric “power, ruler”. The Gothic form was Thiudreiks, which was notably borne by Theodoric the Great, a 6th-century king of the Ostrogoths who eventually became the ruler of Italy.
STAFFORD
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: STAF-ərd
From a surname which was from a place name meaning “landing-place ford” in Old English.
Using the above definitions, because there is no direct translation for my name, I went to Dicts.info following in Kim’s footprints of translations. And here I found the translations for the above.
- landing place agariba
- ford; crossing asase
- rule; govern osameru
- people’s welfare or livelihood minsei
So if I put this together to mean my name (last name first in the Japanese way) it would read something like this:
Agaribaasase Osameruminsei
And if that is correct then its meaning would be “One who governs over the peoples welfare of the landing place ford.”
About The Author
That sounds about right. Though it would probably something more like Agaribasase Osameruminsei. They don’t usually put two letters right beside each other. If they do, then its usually like so: Agariba’asase. But anyway, that does sound about right. Good job, Derek. I’m proud of you.
I do see what you mean…
On a side note, if that’s what my name means then should I like run for mayor here? I mean this town is an old landing of a ford and currently has a crossing still….
Not that I’d want the job