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?

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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
    2016-02-04T09:44:43+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.

    I don't know why "yomi" was chosen, but here's a Japanese explanation.

    First off, it's important to note that Kanji is not Japanese; it's Chinese.

    The kanji 訓 (one kun reading is "yo.mu") means "instruction, Japanese character reading, explanation, read."

    訓む ("yomu") means to "pronounce kanji using the native Japanese reading."

    読 (kun readings "yo.mu" and "-yo.mi") means "read."

    読む ("yomu") means "to read" and 読み ("yomi") means "reading."

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-04T11:10:00+00:00

    According to this wiki page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomi, Yomi also means Land of Death, or Under World, which is not pleasant for naming a person in your contact.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-03-02T23:43:02+00:00

    Windows 10, the new version that is set to come out is not going to be free. A beta probably won't come out for a year. Why would it be free? When I buy a 2013 Honda they don't send me a 2015 for free :)

    Windows 10, eh? Version 9.x will be skipped for some reason, then? I see.

    That is an excellent analogy—in my opinion—because Honda is a Japanese company which will undoubtedly have great need for the "Yomi Name" entry being discussed in this conversation.

    Thank you very much!

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