Japanese Phrase Help?

Question

Hi i'm speaking to my japanese pen pel later today and i wanted to ask him :

What is your mum called?

What is your dad called?

How are they?

To ask someone what there mother is called do you say:

Anata no okasan wa namae wa?

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

You mean you want to know the parents' names?

Okaasan no onamae wa nan desu ka?

Otousan no onamae wa nan desu ka?

[Goryoushin wa] ogenki desu ka?

You don't need anata no because it's obvious from context it's the other person's parents and not yours.

Okaasan wa namae wa = Your mother is name is.

To make it your mother's name you need no instead of wa, like I did above.

Goryoushin = your parents. If you think it's obvious you're asking how their parents are you don't need the bit in brackets for clarification.

Answer 2

Except that it's a strange question in Japanese. Mostly mum is called "okaasan" and dad is called "otousan". Even married couples don't usually use each others names. Also the honorific "o" of "onamae" is a bit over the top in this context. Why don't you ask them how Japan is doing in the Olympics instead. Oh - and since we are foreigners its ok to make mistakes...LOL