Using Japanese honorifics with non-kana names


Some Japanese websites have no problem addressing me as Amandaさん, but how
common is this in human-produced Japanese? Under what circumstances would
someone refer to someone else as Amandaさん, בועזくん, or Екатери́наちゃん instead of
アマンダさん, ボアズくん, or エカテリーナちゃん?




Non-Japanese names are usually written with Japanese letters in Japanese text,
but it is not rare to see them written with the original letters, too. I do
not think that use of honorifics is related to whether foreign names are
spelled in kana letters or in the original script.




It's used quite normally. My business emails, spam mail, post from the bank or
government are all normally addressed to `David 様`, or whatever exact name
they happen to know me by. The same goes for more informal communication using
〜さん or other less honorable honorifics. A certain client of mine is addressing
me as `DAVID SAN` in emails. Non-roman, non-Japanese alphabets probably won't
be used that easily though, mostly because few people can understand or write
them. If you introduce yourself to people using the katakana spelling of your
name, people may be more likely to use it instead of rōmaji. It always depends
on the individual author though. Some will try to find out how to spell your
name in kana, others may be glad for the opportunity to use rōmaji.

