Artists names you thought were their lastnames?? :P
 

hehe... this might be a silly question? but for instance:

Koda Kumi

since I know her I always thought Koda was her name... later I found out Kumi was actually her name and it a was a shock.. xD. I don't like how Kumi Koda sounds.. so I always call her Koda Kumi :P

Also I have trouble calling Hira Ken backwards.. ''Ken Hirai'' I don't like how it sounds haha.

so what about you?

I'm on the boat with you on Kumi Koda. I always thought it was the other way around, too!

That and Hikaru Utada. I could never figure out which way it was. Hikaru always made more sense since that sounded more "nameish", but whenever I would go to a website that always listed ALL the other artists one way, hers would be the other way around. (IE: Ayumi Hamasaki ---> Utada Hikaru) I wish people would keep up with a little consistency. =P

I can't think of many others right now, although fairly recently I had a bout with Hitoto Yo's name. But I figured that out quickly.

Koda Kumi...Utada Hikaru recently...before i thoguht utada was her first name..then i started readin random biographies a few weeks ago[i like rereading the same stuff XD]..and they refered her last name as being her first name...so then i got confused....

oooh yes utada Hikaru! same thing for me!! but I learned that his father is Utada so... hahaha

Ya! I always thought that it was Koda and Utada, but I was misleaded. :laugh

Hikaru Utada, Kumi Koda, Nozomi Tsuji (still going on :rolleyes). Oh and Ken Hirai. And Nanase Aikawa!

Yup... Nozomi Tsuji for me too ^^;; but partly because I never knew her first name, because they always called her Tsuji... ^^;; So I thought that was her first name... I should've known better, because people don't go calling them by their first name all the time ^^; Ai Kago was easy to figure out though... ^^;;

for the longsest timei thought that Namie's first name was Amuro and her last name was Namie. i thought that until i took a japanese at my highschool

oh I just remember Abe Natsumi!.... Natsumi being her name!!! a friend just told me! xD and I forgot!

hahaha

Well Koda's real name is Kumiko Koda.

And for me as well the Hikki thing

Nanase Aikawa and lot of Morning Musume/Hello Project singers.

I think kumi Koda ( :P ) and natsumi Abe are the only names I mixed up. Koda's worst though, her songs are the only ones saved as "Koda kumi - title" in my library. All other j-pop artists are the other way around. =P

Shiina Ringo ^.^* Only earlier this year did I learn that Shiina is her last name.. (though Ringo is part of her stage name >.> but still)

(This is actually an opposite thing for me.. I thought her last name was her first name lol)

Shiina Ringo and Kumi Koda...from this thread i now know it's actually their last name

I think I read somewhere that Shiina Ringo's real name is 'Yumiko'. It's good that she didn't keep such a boring name.

and just a little Japanese trivia - most of the time the part which ends with 'da' is the surname. eg. Matsuda Seiko and of course Koda, Utada, etc.

Koda Kumi and Utada Hikaru for me! ^^ I thought Hikaru was her family name..

Ringo is her name??????????? wow! I had nooooooooooo Idea!

sankyou!

i think u guys get the wrong idea....
in japan they dont use first/lastname...instead they use their family name in the front and their name in the back *for example...Utada Hikaru* her family name are Utada and Hikaru are her name....alot of people always confuse...
unlike ayumi hamasaki,she use ayumi in the front because she dont want people outside of japan to confuse.....but still japanese folk call her hamasaki ayumi because that is the correct pronounce...(if my english stinks forgive me...)

I used to think that "Amuro" was Namie Amuro's first name... but that was before I became a fan of her's.

It's quite simple.

in Japanese male and female names, there are certain endings. "ko" means child, so for example, Aki"ko" and Yuki"ko." It's basically feminine. Another popular ending for girls is "mi" like Ayu"mi."Guys tend to have more "o" name endings. There are lots more, but I forgot, lol.

Koda Kumi. Since kumi means 'rubber' in Finnish I think Koda sounds prettier so I use either her full name (written in the Japanese last name - first name order) or the nickname Ku.

When I first started listening to Jpop Ayu almost always seemed to be listed as Ayumi Hamasaki but Hikki was the other way around - Utada Hikaru, don't know why.

I totally forgot this chick:

Goto Maki or Maki Goto


See I still don't know

sad huh?

I'm fairly certain her given name is Maki. :yes

Another popular ending for girls' given names is "se". Such as "Nanase" Nana by itself means seven, (thus all the references with her music) but a "se" at the end makes it more feminine, or so I'm told.

I forgot Ringo as well. For a long time I couldn't figure it out either.

The one that confuses me the most is actually my favourite singer, Maaya Sakamoto.
It's quite easy to tell that Maaya is her given name, while Sakamoto is her family name, but it always appears differently on her albums.
Let me explain:

-her first album (Grapefruit) has her name as 'Maaya Sakamoto' (in English letters) on it (the 'Maaya' is kinda covered up though, so it looks like it just says 'Sakamoto')

-her second album (DIVE) also says 'Maaya Sakamoto' in English letters

-third album (HotchPotch) says 'Sakamoto Maaya' in English letters

-fourth album (Lucy) has her name written in Japanese on the spine, in English as 'Sakamoto Maaya' on another part of the spine, and as simply 'maaya' on the last page of the booklet.

-fifth album (Easy Listening) says 'maaya sakamoto'

-sixth (nikopachi) says 'Sakamoto Maaya' in English

-seventh (Shounen Alice) has her name in Japanese again

-eighth (Yunagi Loop) I'm not sure yet (my copy hasnt arrived), but the official site for the new album has her name written three different ways......all on the same page......O_O

So, sometimes it's not just the fans who can't be consistent. It's the artist.

To heyrillp: Yes we know that... but the problem is that sometimes ppl from this part of the world can't tell if that's a name or a last name... and it dosen't help that it's switched lol... since we are so used to have ''name'' and ''last name'' what Brittany is explaining is quite useful and interesting... what sora-kara says is another problem too.

o_o...YOUR KIDDING ME!!! X_________x ...Tsuji sounds sooo much cooler tho D: -cries- ...she looks more like a Tsuji than a Nozomi.......nozomi ...nozzle...D: SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE!?!? whhaaaat!?

I only knew Utada was her last name because it was all in kanji, while hikaru was in katakana. Kumi makes more sense than Koda. Nozomi, as Brittany said, proves her point. Ken Hirai... lol, it is Ken right? hahaha. Nanase is the first name... Aikawa is like... 相川, right? so it's something river... lol. too helpful.

But as Brittany said, given names usually follow a trend in endings, such as "ko" or "ka" for girls, and i forget guys... lol. But I think guys name sound cooler.

so Hikaru is her first name?

apparently yes... UTADA is the last name! :P crazy world don't u think? that'; way the call her Hikki.. but Utada sounds so right for a first name :thud

well.....i never have problem guessing their names... ^__^
forgive me!!!

LOL. yeah, it seems that most of us are confused. I'm glad i visited this thread because i was having the same problem w/ Koda Kumi. Hikaru Utada was a bit confusing too, but i figured it out--i just call her Utada. But most Japanese names are hard to figure out cuz they keep switching it.

Utada Hikaru! I think Hikaru makes her sound like Hikaru Gosunkugi from Ranman 1/2, and by reading this thread I found out that Nono's name isn't Tsuji LOL

I thought Kumi Koda's first name was Koda. On another note, although I knew about Utada Hikaru, I kept typing/saying "Utada Hikari". :roflmao

:shakehead :shakehead :shakehead

Lol, I didn't realise it was Kumi Koda until I read the first post.

I agree, people should be more consistent. Either you keep those names and start saying Hamasaki Ayumi, or you say Kumi Koda and Hikaru Utada.

Yay, the Japanese and the rest of Asia like to confuse us foreigners :evillaugh

I had the same thing as you! I thought Koda was her first name too.
And thanks for the explanation Brittany :)

When I first got into Jpop, I thought that Yaida Hitomi's first name was Yaida. It sounded right as a first name to me bc I actually know a girl named Yaida. But, then i realized it was Hitomi bc of the whole family name being first thing and the fact that Hitomi seems to be a fairly common Japanese name.

omg... Utada's first name is Hikaru????... why they ALWAYS call her Utada?...are you sure about that?... 0_o strange, but i could have expected that...

i guess i was kinda suprised when i found out Kumi is Koda Kumi's first name... Koda sounds kinda better as for a first name...

i'm gonna be soooo confused when i go to Japan *_*

Not to mention, a lot of people call her YAIKO, so that's an easy one to mess up.


Most fans call her Hikki. But lately she's been called 'Utada' a lot because that's the name she uses for her English language stuff. (ie. Exodus by Utada)
It's just easier for a Western audience to remember and pronounce. Also....it just sounds really cool......:cool

:thud ... so Hikaru is her first name? Soo confusing!

Doesn't hikaru sound like a first name to you? That's like saying "Utada has two first names" I call utada by Utada because the only reason why I got interested in her was because I found out she had an english album, other than that I was all AYUMI GOOOOOOOD! And the previous person that said utada was better for the american audience was because if they used like "Hikki, Hikaru" they'd mess that up a lot, and especially HICKEY...lol

I had a problem with Koda Kumi too, I think she should use her full name Kumiko Koda..

and what is BoA's last name....?

I was really confused with 'Utada Hikaru' ^^'' especially with the kanji part..

Kwon :)