It's done.

[kaigou]

If you see this name showing up on your list, eh, it's just me.

ETA: ahem, the good (and bad, if you're a student) of Mandarin is the tonal element, and if you don't know the tones (and don't have the characters) then pinyin could mean any of a huge number of things. In this case, gou is third tone: 狗 (dog). Although if I said first tone instead, it could mean "bamboo frame for drying clothes" -- 篝. But third tone could just as well be "basket for trapping fish" -- 笱.

Kai is third tone. So depending on mood, it could be 凯 (triumphant), 剀 (careful), 慨 (generous), 恺 (joyful), or the one I actually intended, which is 锴 (iron, of the kind used in armor & swords). Although if I said it's fourth tone, it'd be 忾, which means angry.

It's not Japanese, however, as I'm not a student of that language, though it is nice to hear that it has a positive meaning in that language -- "change of era" is apt. My original idea, actually, also had a meaning in Japanese, of "dissolution" (as in debt). But then I decided that fourth-tone shou --狩 (imperial hunting dog) -- wasn't common enough in usage compared to gou, and although in third tone it could be 守 (guarding), I didn't want it confused with 兽 (wild beast), even if the pun of 寿 (life, longevity) would've been nice. Besides, I don't like the sound of 'sh' nearly as much as the middle-ground tone of a hard 'g', on the ears.

Comments

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

(See this post's entry for edited/added explanation of name.)

Except that I believe that meaning of kaigou is Japanese, and I chose this one because of its meaning in Mandarin. Though it is serendipitous to see that it has a positive meaning (and an apt one) in Japanese. Whew -- I was a little worried last night, after hitting "change name!" final step and having a split-second thought that it'd better not have some kind of obscene or truly offensive meaning in some other language.

I contemplated going with a gaelic phrase instead, but then realized there's no way anyone could a) pronounce it, if they chose to try to use it as a nickname, let alone b) successfully, repeatedly, spell the puppy. So many vowels and not enough consonants!

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Yay for serendipity, then! (And silly me for making assumptions - a dangerous thing to do when you're involved! XD )

... and now I have to go find out what "iron dog" is in Japanese. *runs off to Jeffrey's again*

*is mildly addicted to Jeffreys, can you tell?*

Out of curiosity, what was the Gaelic phrase you were thinking of?

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what 'iron dog' might in Japanese, though I know 'inu' is one word for dog -- the idea of dealing with making proper synonyms (let alone a name) in Japanese just boggles my mind. All that grammar -- so much easier in Mandarin!

There were several gaelic words or phrases, among them coingeis (independent, indifferent), cuairtear (traveller), or some variant with cu (dog) -- except that adjectives in gaelic are even more of a nightmare than in japanese, and I'd rather not be utterly ignorant and just throw two words together. (At least in Mandarin, I know I can do that, to a certain extent.) Unfortunately, s'rioghal or srioghal is already taken, and I contemplated modhream but figured no one would ever be able to figure out how to pronounce that.

(Bad enough my beagle was named Saimhain, and I spent eleven years either correcting the vet's assistants -- "No, it's Sah-ven, like seven, not Sam-hane" -- not that pagans were much better, calling her Ska-ven, or Sah-wen, and I kept having to explain, "no, not the old Irish pronounciation, or the modern Irish version, the Scottish version, and yes, it is different..." (Though I don't know which region in Scotland in particular -- I think Aberdeen, but I could be wrong.)

Oi, vey.