What is "Yomi name"?

Brian Tillman [Outlook MVP 2007-2019] 25,920 Reputation points
2012-08-20T20:26:02+00:00

I'm trying to add a contact.  If I click on the plus sign below the "First name", "Last name", and "Company" field, I see a pop-up whose first two entries, "Yomi name" and "Yomi company" don't mean anything to me.  Here's a picture:

What the heck does that mean?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Contacts

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Anonymous
2012-09-06T20:38:39+00:00

Hi Brian,

Yomi name and Yomi company name are fields for entering the phonetic equivalent for Japanese names. In Japan, there is commonly a Furigana equivalent for the Kanji name that is used for sorting and searching.

HTH,

Stacey

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-03T17:51:36+00:00

    Not only Japanese names need a phonetic equivalent - what about Chinese, Hebrew or Arabic names? Wouldn't it be more clear if Microsoft calls it "Phonetic name" or something similar? I guess that would be understood by more people without needs for training themselves Japanese.

    Besides - "Yomi" has another meaning which is basically Death or Road to Death, in some east Asian cultures including Japanese. That may have put off quite some people from using this contact product for something else like google contact.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-16T17:42:38+00:00

    customers don't need to be polite, but I notice most of them are.  I will be when I am no longer angry at being forced to this new system.

    should moderators be polite?

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-09-26T21:06:03+00:00

    Thanks for the feedback. We have plans to move these terms down to the bottom of the box (in Japan, they'll be shown on screen by default), so that should help people realize that it's OK if they don't understand the term.

    Again, while the terms are confusing for people who are unfamiliar with them, we think the benefit of supporting this functionality, and its consistency with the EAS schema (and therefore other EAS clients) outweighs the confusion, since you can simply ignore them, and most people will not click "+ Name" on a regular basis unless they're looking for a special field.

    Stacey

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-09-26T15:16:50+00:00

    "Your question is perfectly reasonable, Brian. I do expect my UX to be informed by my choice of locale and language. In fact, a lot of people feel that way."

    I agree wholeheartedly! Someone in one of the forums suggested to Google "yomi" and I did. I got a variety of answers from Virtua Fighting terms to the fluid that comes out after **** ****!

    I searched and searched and nothing I read connected the dots that a field on my English language contacts list would be needed to incorporate a different version of Japanese names.

    At the very least, Outlook.com's "Help" button should include the definition as put forth by the Community Moderator Firedog without having to go to the forums for answers.

    I appreciate the ability to add Nicknames, middle names, and suffix's but, if Yomi names and Yomi companies are now going to become part of the mainstream English language, at the very least, put them at the end of the dropdown box.

    What I would like to see is the ability to add a 2nd company name in the dropdown box such as "Company2".

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