Names
Names in japanese culture typically start with the person's family name and then their first name. To put it in terms you would understand, let's take a common name for example. Emily Solomon. In japanese culture, they do not have the 'l' sound, so it would become Emirii Soromon (エミリー ソロモン). If you say it correctly, it should sound just like the western verison. Now, since 'solomon' is the last name, it would be said first. So instead of saying Emirii Soromon, it would be Soromon Emirii (ソロモン エミリー). See how easy that is. If we were to use an actual japanese name, say Tarō Yamada, if we do the equation right, it becomes Yamada Tarō (山田太郎). See, not too hard.
Now onto the name portion. Let's start with last names since they come first, and their isn't all that much on them. Japanese last names tend to describe the area in which them come from. Ishikawa (石川) translates to 'stony river'. Yamamoto (山本) means 'base of the mountain'. Now to writing these suckers in japanese. They are never written solely in katakana. You're looking at me and saying, "but mirth-sama, the example last name is in katakana". That is because it is a western name. Katakana is mostly used for words that don't appear in the japanese language, like western words and what not. Japanese last names are normally written in one or more kanji. They can have a mixture of both kanji and hiragana, but it cannot purely be katakana.
Now onto given names. This would be the name your parents give you, i.e. Emily. Now, these names can be written in kanji, hiragana, katakana or a mixture. It really depends. If you want your name to have meaning, it would be written in kanji then. Now names differ for each sex. Let's start with the ladies. Female names usually end with -ko (子) meaning 'child'. Male names can also end in -ko but it would be written with an entirely different kanji (児). Here is where things start to get tricky. Both 児 and 子 are pronounced the same, ko, and they can have two different meanings. 子 can mean 'child' or 'daughter', but is rarely used as 'son', and 児 means 'child' or 'son' but is rarely used for 'daughter'. Welcome to the wonderful world of confusion. Back to names. Some common male endings are -o and -shi. If ending with -shi, it will typically be an adjective (it's words used to describe things) e.g. Atsushi which might mean, for example, 'to be faithful.'
Now, names cannot begin with just the consonant 'n'. The syllable 'n' is the only sound that ends in in 'n' or any other non-vowel. No names like "Nratio" or "Ntaro" exist. Remember that. Names can end in 'n' like Ken, Shin or Jun. This shouldn't be confused with the consonant 'n' that can start off names like "Naoko" or "Naoya".
I will cover Nicknames as soon as I feel like it. XD
