Mao's Name

This topic may seem a little random, but it pertains to Mao
I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what her name, "Mao" means in Japanese. With my limited Japanese, I don't think there is a word mao. But just how many English names aren't exactly english words, but they have meaning, I wondered if Mao's name in kanji could also mean something different?

真央

I think a good translation of 真 (ma) would be "higher than, or on top of something," though this seems like the harder part of Mao's name to figure out.
and 央 using my kanji dictionary comes out to means "in the middle, center"...so hopefully something like "center of balance" or "center of podium"

If someone who is better at Japanese would like to give a stab at mao's name..that would be interesting! Or even if you don't want to analyze Japanese or Mao's name it would be nice to hear your take on this :3

I'm certainly not familiar with kanji but those characters happen to make sense to me in Chinese so I could provide some insight in that area (though I'm not sure of the relevance in this case)

央 means "in the middle, center" as you said in your post, though only when it's used with 中. 央 is pronounced as "yang" in Mandarin.

真 in Chinese means "real" or "genuine". It is pronounced as "zhen". When you put those two characters together, I guess the literal meaning would be "the genuine center-point". Well, she's certainly at the center of most people's attention But apart from that, I don't think such a word pairing actually exists in the Chinese language. Then again, my grasp of Chinese is very limited.

What I find interesting is that when you input each character in Mao's name into the altavista babelfish translator (including the Asada part) 浅田 真央, you get "shallow-field-real-center", but when you put all four characters in at once, you get "Mao Asada". Is it because this particular combination of characters in kanji just naturally translates into "Mao Asada" or is Mao so wide known that she's been listed in a dictionary?

Interesting topic.

If we break down her first name, the first part is 真 which means "true" or "real" as in 真っ黒 (まっくろ), e.g., pitch black. The second part is 央 which means "center", e.g., 中央口 (ちゅうおうぐち) e.g., central exit. So literally her name means "true center."

I also find it interesting that her sister's name also starts with "M", Mai (舞). It's practically from the verb 舞う (まう) which means "to dance." And it's quite a coincidence that Mao's current FS program's name in Japanese has her sister's name in it, i.e., Masquerade Waltz is 仮面舞踏会 (かめんぶとうかい).

Mao is named after Mao Daichi, a very famous and successful Takarazuka actress, whom Mao Asada's dad was a big fan of.
See here:
http://www.daichimao.com/e_top.html

But note that 'Mao Daichi' is actually a stage name; it is not the actress' real name. To my ears, 'Mao' is a very unusual name. When I first saw Mao Asada I remember thinking, "she has such a strange name! But it makes sense, a special name for a very special skater!"

Mai literally means "dance," and she was named 'Mai' because their mother is a very big ballet fan. In fact, Mao and Mai were supposed to be world-class ballerinas, not skaters!
See this article:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sp20060326a2.html

And yup, I think it's totally adorable that Mai and Mao's names match!

Right. MAO comes from a Japanese actress Daichi Mao. I guess the original meaning is "beloved" or "popular among people".

I never knew Mao was named after a Takarazuka actress!!! That is awesome~
:3
Thank you for the insight on Mao's name, everyone, too.
I think real or true center does describe Mao very well : D I think she might have lost her center a little bit toward the end of this season, but she will get it back..
it's innate~!! >w<

Mai and Mao...I can't think of better names for such lyrical, athletic sisters (at least, Japanese names). They aren't flat-out weird names, but they are different enough for people to remember.

And thank you as well for the article on Mao's mother wanting her to be a ballerina. She is certainly is a ballerina on ice now, though...no pun intended.

Now..what about 浅田

Thanks for the explanation, everybody! I didn't know the origin of Mao's name until today.

It also kinda amuses me how differently Japanese names sound in Chinese. For example Daisuke's Chinese name will be Gaoqiao Dafu (Takahashi Daisuke). Or... Zhitian Xincheng - Oda Nobunari.

Names always sound really strange (not necessarily in a bad way) when you try to transliterate them into Chinese.

Mao's would be: Qiantian Zhenyang.

chineseteacup wrote:

Names always sound really strange (not necessarily in a bad way) when you try to transliterate them into Chinese.

Mao's would be: Qiantian Zhenyang.

That is really interesting!!!
I am not very sure how to correctly pronounce Chinese, but Qiantian Zhenyang sounds like a very catchy name! Is Qiantian "Asada" and Zhenyang "Mao"?


Does anyone have any take on the meaning of 浅田 Asada ?

MaoMaoRevolution wrote:

That is really interesting!!!
I am not very sure how to correctly pronounce Chinese, but Qiantian Zhenyang sounds like a very catchy name! Is Qiantian "Asada" and Zhenyang "Mao"?


Does anyone have any take on the meaning of 浅田 Asada ?

It literally means "shallow (rice) field." 浅い is あさい and 田 is た。

MaoMaoRevolution wrote:

I am not very sure how to correctly pronounce Chinese, but Qiantian Zhenyang sounds like a very catchy name! Is Qiantian "Asada" and Zhenyang "Mao"?

Qiantian = Asada, and
Zhenyang = Mao

BUT, if you were to read the characters in "Asada" by their onyomi (the Chinese-derived way, instead of the Japanese reading), then it would be "Sen-ten" or "Sen-den," and you can kind of see how it came from the original Chinese.

And similarly, if you did the same for 'Mao,' it would be something like "Shin-ou" or "Shin-you." (Actually, the "o" in "Mao" is a bit of a non-standard reading, but for names they do funny things. )

"Qiantian Zhenyang" would be a very unique name indeed, as most Chinese names only have three or two characters! Four character names are very rare...

Yeah. Four character names are very rare coz most Chinese family names are only one character. Most Chinese names are two characters or three characters. However, four character names are much more common due to the one-child policy. Many parents will combine their family names together as their Children's family name.
The character for Mao's name in Chinese is 浅田真央
浅田=Asada
真央=Mao
真 means true and央 means center