Daonuea -My lovely friends give me Thai name-

My lovely friends gave me a Thai name Daonuea. Daonuea means Polaris in Thai.

Thai has many varieties of tones and accents, while Japanese does not have. Therefore, some of my Thai friends asked me how to pronounce my name, for example Kaho↗ or Kaho↘. At first, my friends thought of my Thai name as having a similar pronunciation to the original one.

Then, they asked me about the origin of my Japanese name. I tried to explain my name to my friends. Japanese does not have many accents. Instead, it uses three types of characters: Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ), and Kanji (漢字). The sound of "Kaho" itself does not have a meaning, but the characters used to write it carry wishes and memories.

Kaho is 香帆 in Kanji.

My Parents' Wedding Episode Leading to Kaho, 香帆

My parents are from Kagawa prefecture in Japan, and they had their wedding on the top floor of a hotel. From there, they saw a beautiful sea view with floating yachts. After I was born in Kagawa, they named me Kaho. They hoped I would move forward by hoisting the sail, just like sailing. 帆 (ho) means "sail" in Japanese, and 香 (ka) comes from the name of Kagawa, 香川 in Kanji.

After hearing that story, my friends changed my Thai name. It became Daonuea.

"When you face difficulties, when you are in the dark night, you can always find the polar star-Daonuea- to guide you. So, you can keep going toward your destination." they told me. How impressive!

My Japanese name focuses on the journey, while my Thai name focuses on the guiding sign. They carry the same wish but in different ways. It is interesting, isn't it? Na?