Once we knew that a baby boy was coming our way ~4 months ago, we began compiling our exhaustive list of potential names.
The process was pretty long because whenever we managed to narrow the list down, we would add a few more right back onto it! We would also talk to the baby in Mom’s tummy and call him various names until we found the one that felt right. A little weird, but I guess it kinda worked?
Daren [dair-‘ren]
Bel originally chose this name after seeing the name one day at her work. I also liked the way it sounded after hearing and saying it a few times out loud. Bel originally wanted the more traditional spelling (Darren), but we settled for a more unique spelling variation of the name with one letter “r”.
Akira [ah–kee-rah]
There was quite a bit of back-and-forth on Daren’s middle name. We kept asking ourselves, should we go with a middle name that is English? Japanese? Chinese?
For the past couple of generations, the Japanese characters in the names on my dad’s side had a theme: a kanji character used in the name was passed down to the next generation. For example, my grandmother’s name was Toshiko, and my dad’s name was Toshikazu (In this example, the kanji used for “Toshi” in both names were identical). My brother’s Japanese name is Kazuhiro, and the kanji character for “Kazu” was also used in my dad’s name.
With that thinking in mind, I wanted to see if I could have my middle name, Noriaki, have a portion in common with my son. But which part would he take? Nori-something? Aki-something? Not to mention, the kanji character could also mean something else when paired with another character. So many possibilities and decisions! In the end, my dad and grandmother both helped to choose the final Japanese kanji characters for his name: Akira.
The meaning of Akira from his Japanese characters is: “a person with character, a sunshine that brightens everyone around them”
We love you Daren Akira Nakabayashi!