Which readings would you use to pronounce people's names?


I'm confused whether it is normally appropriate to use On-readings or Kun-
readings when dealing with people's names; I'm fine when its just two
character names; I just make a logical deduction in my head to how to say
their name; but when I try to pronounce names with 3 kanji together, I'm
completely lost.

I'll bring in examples at a later time, this computer can't easily type kanji.




I don't think there is a "normally" appropriate way. My personal philosophy is
never assume you can read someone's name.

I suppose last names are easier to make a correct (educated) guess. It seems
like they more often use kun-yomi. But they could be on-yomi, or other,
lesser-used kun-yomi. I have two friends whose last names are the kanji `金城`.
However, one of them is `かねしろ` and the other is `きんじょう`. `吉田` I've seen as
both `よしだ` and `きちだ`.

First names are a whole other story. From what I've heard and researched, it
seems that Japanese people are allowed to basically associate any kanji they
want with any reading they want. Kind of like how it's trendy these days to
make up your own spellings for English names ('Lynzee', 'Linzy', Davyd',
'Markis', etc.) So your friend `良` could be the `よし` or `りょう`, but he could be
something completely off-the-wall like `ちから` or `あきら`. Or `真` could be `ま`,
`まこと`, `しん`, `のぶ`, or some other, random reading.

Never assume you can read someone's name. That is why when you fill out
paperwork (application forms, official documents, etc.), they make you fill
out the furigana for your kanji.




I don't think there is a "normally" appropriate way. My personal philosophy is
never assume you can read someone's name.

I suppose last names are easier to make a correct (educated) guess. It seems
like they more often use kun-yomi. But they could be on-yomi, or other,
lesser-used kun-yomi. I have two friends whose last names are the kanji `金城`.
However, one of them is `かねしろ` and the other is `きんじょう`. `吉田` I've seen as
both `よしだ` and `きちだ`.

First names are a whole other story. From what I've heard and researched, it
seems that Japanese people are allowed to basically associate any kanji they
want with any reading they want. Kind of like how it's trendy these days to
make up your own spellings for English names ('Lynzee', 'Linzy', Davyd',
'Markis', etc.) So your friend `良` could be the `よし` or `りょう`, but he could be
something completely off-the-wall like `ちから` or `あきら`. Or `真` could be `ま`,
`まこと`, `しん`, `のぶ`, or some other, random reading.

Never assume you can read someone's name. That is why when you fill out
paperwork (application forms, official documents, etc.), they make you fill
out the furigana for your kanji.

