A group of foreign residents married to Japanese talked about their children's names. Nicole Despres Students services manager, 40 (American) We have no intention to live outside Japan so it made sense for the kids to take my Japanese husband's family name. However, we did want to have a Western name too, so all three of them now have both a Western and Japanese name. We agreed there would be no strange names, spelling or unusual kanji(Chinese characters in the Japanese language). All names had to be easy to say and familiar in both Japanese and English. John McCracken Company general manager, 27(American) My son's name is Aiden. In part because my wife and I met in university and as she was studying Irish history and I have some links to Scotland and Ireland, I wanted a unique Gaelic name. We settled for Aiden as we found kanji that can be used in Japan that means "legendary hero" Paula Murakami College women's Association of Japan, 53(American) My husband was very excited about choosing names, so I decided to let him choose. He wanted their first names to be Japanese and camp up with names that included the kanji character in his own name. Our boys, Hiroki and Kenta, never had any problems while living on the U.S. West Coast with Japanese names, and I think both as children and as adults, they love their names. Jeff Ruiz Recording engineer, 42(Mexican) My son's name is Lenny. My wife chose it together with me as we were looking for a name that works in both worlds -- mine in Mexico, and hers in Japan -- and the name Lenny is common everywhere. In Japanese we write the name in katakana as that is easy for Japanese people who seem to like names in two or three characters. What do we know about the people mentioned in the passage?
Nicole and her husband had an agreement on how to name the children. Jeff will remain in Japan as his wife is not used to Mexican life. The four couples have decided to live with the children in Japan forever. Paula and her family would love to live on the U.S. West Coast.