The Kanji, Meiyo, verification

Question

Hey all,

I'm thinking of getting the Kanji tattoed on me called Meiyo.

Now, I know it means honour, but does this kanji represent honour?

Thank you heres the link to the kanji

http://japanese.about.com/bl50kanji_meiyo.htm

p.s. To all who write ''ignorant gaijin who doesn't even learn the language'', I do know it quite well,its just I need to work on the kanji side of Japanese now XD

Answer 1

Your understanding is correct. Meiyo is equal to honor and the Kanji represents honor. There is no problem you put tattoo the word on as you like. It is good word too.

Answer 2

GD173 has explained it pretty well.

Often there are more than one way to tranlate an English word into kanji, and sometimes even if the meaning is right, it looks wrong as a tattoo.

All in all, I don't think it's a good idea to inscribe something permanently on your body if you can't be sure yourself what it means.

Answer 3

名誉 does mean "honor" but I think it might be a little different from the kind of "honor" your looking for.

名誉 is often used to to express the idea of "honorary", "glory", "distinction", etc. as a form of recognition for something you either did or who you are.

For example the word 名誉会長 ("meiyokaicho") means "honorary chairperson" or "honorary president".

So, even though 名誉 does mean "honor", a better word might be 義 ("gi").

義 also means "honor" but not in the sense of some kind of recognition you receive. 義 means "honor" in the sense of  "devoted", "faithful", "loyal", "noble" and even "respectful". 義 is more of description of a personal quality and is often used in kanji compounds to express ideas like "chivalrous", "righteous", "noble", etc., etc.

Maybe 義 would be a better choice for a tattoo.  

Answer 4

名誉 means honor. Yes.